With less than a fortnight to go before the meaningful vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, more details have been emerging about how the government will structure the vote – and its strategy.
Government sources confirmed they have dropped attempts, previously being spearheaded by the former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, to make the motion impossible to amend.
Instead, under plans unveiled for the process, MPs would be allowed to table six potential amendments – likely to come from across the political spectrum, from European Research Group hardliners to “people’s vote” enthusiasts.
The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, would then select the amendments which would be debated and decided on by MPs.
Labour has been considering tabling an amendment setting out its alternative Brexit policy, in the hope that it can demonstrate significant parliamentary backing for it.
Even May’s most loyal lieutenants know the odds against the deal passing are now all but insurmountable, with more than 90 Tory MPs having pledged publicly to reject it.
But they hope MPs’ minds would be more keenly focused on the decision at hand if a series of amendments were voted on before the main motion, and failed to command majority support.
That would upturn the sequence of events in the minds of many at Westminster, who have been busily planning for what comes after the meaningful vote is lost.
MPs of all shades of opinion hope a majority wil coalesce behind their preferred policy in the aftermath of the vote, at 7pm on 11 December; but many of these, all of which have their vehement champions in parliament, contradict each other.
A Norway-style deal, which has been enthusiastically discussed both inside and outside the cabinet, would be rejected by the prime minister, who has repeatedly signalled that she believed “ending free movement once and for all” was one of the messages voters sent in the 2016 referendum.
Labour’s frontbench would also be likely to reject such a deal. Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said on Wednesday: “We’ve said in relation to the Norway option that we just don’t think it works for Britain and we’ve said that all along.”
