LONDON _ U.K. House of Commons Speaker John Bercow dealt a major blow to Theresa May's Brexit strategy by effectively banning her from bringing her deal back to Parliament for a third time, unless it changes significantly.
In a surprise ruling on Monday, Bercow set the government a new "test" to meet if he's going to allow the prime minister to ask Parliament to vote again on whether to approve the agreement she's spent two years negotiating with the European Union.
If the deal is substantially different from the plan that the Commons has rejected already, he will allow members of Parliament to vote on it, the speaker said. If it's just the same as before, he won't. The problem for May is that negotiations have finished and time has almost run out before the U.K. is due to leave the bloc on March 29.
May had been working to put her deal back to Parliament for approval by March 20, with a vote penciled in for Tuesday. Bercow's ruling damages May's chances of getting it approved on this timescale, and perhaps at all.
The premier will head to Brussels for a summit on Thursday and now seems likely to have to ask EU leaders to give her an extension to the deadline, potentially lasting many months.
The pound fell as Bercow spoke, before paring losses.
In his statement, Bercow invoked the rule _ dating back to 1604 _ that the same motion cannot be put to a vote repeatedly. "It is a necessary rule to ensure the sensible use of the House's time and the proper respect for the decisions which it takes. Decisions of the House matter," he said. "They have weight. In many cases they have direct effects not only here but on the lives of our constituents."
May's deal was first rejected on Jan. 15 by a record 230 votes. She then reopened talks with the EU to secure further legal assurances on how the Irish border backstop guarantee would work. She then put the revised deal to another vote on March 12, when it was rejected by 149 votes.
Bercow said he allowed the Commons to vote for a second time on May's deal because it was a substantially different proposal, with new legal texts for MPs to consider. They have reached their decision on it, he said, suggesting that even a new legal opinion from the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox would not be enough to allow another vote if the deal itself is unchanged.
"What the government cannot do is to resubmit to the House the same proposition or substantially the same proposition as that of last week which was rejected by 149 votes," Bercow said. "This ruling should not be regarded as my last word on the subject. It is simply meant to indicate the test that the government must meet in order for me to rule that a third 'meaningful vote' can legitimately be held in this parliamentary session."
