Brexit take over, MPs prepare to vote on alternatives after flooring PM’s proposal

Following the refusal and failure of Theresa May’s proposal to convince the MPs to exit the EU,the MP are now set to vote out the modalities on how the country is going to move into the next phase of the deal

It’s another day of Brexit votes in the House of Commons. After Theresa May’s deal was rejected in January and March, MPs will begin voting on alternatives, in a process likely to continue into next week. Options could include a new customs union with the EU, another referendum, or the cancellation of Brexit.

The votes are non-binding and Mrs May has already said that, even if there’s a majority for an alternative plan, it may be “un-negotiable” with the EU.

The prime minister still hopes her deal will pass, eventually. That could be more likely after Jacob Rees Mogg’s intervention. The Eurosceptic MP says he will support Mrs May’s deal, if the Northern Irish DUP does as well. 

He writes in the Daily Mail: “Theresa May’s deal is a bad one, it does not deliver on the promises made in the Tory Party manifesto and its negotiation was a failure of statesmanship but all the other potential outcomes are worse.”

There is a very strange mood around the place in Westminster, ahead of what could be a very messy and tricky day as MPs get ready to vote.

MPs will spend much of their time on Wednesday voting on different versions of Brexit. But the government is even at odds with itself over whether they should be given free rein to do so.

One source told me 19 ministers are ready to quit if they aren’t allowed to have their say which could, of course hypothetically at least, collapse the government itself.

Alistair Burt, who quit his ministerial post last night, said on the record this afternoon that there were “enough” colleagues still with their bums on government seats who might act if the prime minister was pushed to again consider no deal by the Brexiteer wing of the party.

But one member of the cabinet said yesterday that the government would have to whip the votes tomorrow, even if they were only an indication of a way forward.

The thinking being if you don’t, you make it even harder to gather up all the different factions for another run at the meaningful vote the thumbs up or thumbs down to the prime minister’s deal that she wants to bring back to Parliament as soon as possible, maybe this Thursday.

It seems right now there is disagreement in the political machine over just about every single issue, making government seem like a never ending series of question marks.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Ministers are even wondering aloud that “no one seems to be doing anything”, frustrated that Theresa May is keeping the circle around her tighter than ever before, and that’s saying something.

Expectation is building that the prime minister could announce a date for her departure in a meeting with her MPs tomorrow a final throw of the dice to try to get her deal over the line.

But one MP who has discussed it with a member of the inner circle suggests there is just no way she’ll do that.

It is also still possible the prime minister will have a third go at getting her deal through the Commons this week, maybe even grabbing an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat.

Just at a time when the country might want our politicians to be acting together, the different tribes in Westminster don’t seem like they’re part of the same conversation. With the prime minister strangely seeming apart from it all.

The next 72 hours could be the moment when suddenly a conclusion snaps together. But anyone being able to pull any of this all together seems a tall order indeed.

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