PM backs
Graham Brady’s amendment, which seeks to replace backstop with ‘alternative arrangements’
Theresa May has announced to the Commons that she plans to return to
Brussels and seek to reopen the painstakingly negotiated withdrawal agreement so as to seek legally-binding changes to the Irish backstop.
The prime minister confirmed that the government would back an amendment tabled by senior Tory backbencher Sir Graham Brady, which seeks to replace the Irish backstop with “alternative arrangements”.
“This amendment will give the mandate I need to negotiate with Brussels an arrangement that commands a majority in this house,” she said, denying charges from some MPs that seeking to reopen a deal the EU has repeatedly insisted is final was to pursue “fantasies”.
“What I’m talking about is not a further exchange of letters, but a significant and legally-binding change to the withdrawal agreement,” May said. “Negotiating such a change will not be easy. It will involve reopening the withdrawal agreement, a move for which I know there is limited appetite among our European partners.”
May noted that MPs had voted down her initial deal and made it plain they did not want a no-deal departure or an election: “So the world knows what this house does not want. Today we need to send an emphatic message about what we do want.”
Challenged by the Labour MP Peter Kyle about why she was backing a plan which went against her own deal, May said this was because she had yielded to the views of MPs.
“Time and time again, members on the opposition benches have stood up and asked me to listen to this house,” she said. “Now I come to this house having listened to the house, and they say you shouldn’t have done it.”
Before May spoke the Speaker, John Bercow, said he had selected Brady’s amendment among seven to be voted on at 7pm, as well as one from the Tory MP Dominic Grieve seeking to push the government to hold indicative votes on the way forward, and the Labour MP Yvette Cooper’s proposal to stop no deal.
The prime minister said these two proposals were “deeply misguided”, and had significant consequences.
“Both amendments seek to create and exploit mechanisms that allow parliament to usurp the proper role of the executive,” she said. “Such actions would be unprecedented and would have far-reaching implications for the way the
UK is governed and for the balance of powers and responsibilities in our democratic institutions.”
The others were an official Labour amendment, which calls for a customs union; an SNP plan seeking an extension to article 50; a cross-party plan to extend article 50 and another cross-party amendment advising against no deal.
May said that if no deal were sealed by 13 February, the government would table another statement setting out what the government plans to do next, which MPs would be able to amend, giving them another opportunity to reject a no-deal
Brexit.
Downing Street had previously insisted that reopening the 585-page withdrawal agreement was unacceptable to the EU27, and risked other governments trying to push for fresh concessions on other issues, such as fisheries or the status of Gibraltar.
But May’s official spokesman said the prime minister had told her cabinet that, “in order to win the support of the House of Commons, legal changes to the backstop will be required. That will mean reopening the withdrawal agreement.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the backbench European Research Group, and the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, had both demanded a clear statement from May that she was willing to reopen the fraught issue of the backstop.
“We need to go back into the text of the treaty and solve the problem. That is the way to unite remainers and leavers in the Conservative party and across the country,” Johnson said.
May confirmed she would potentially back the so-called “Malthouse compromise” – a proposal thrashed out by the housing minister Kit Malthouse together with both Brexit and remain-backing MPs.
Answering an intervention from the Conservative MP Nicky Morgan, one of those involved in the plan, May called it “a serious proposal that we’re engaging with sincerely and positively”.
The prime minister is expected to hold calls with EU leaders later on Tuesday, to clear the way for another round of negotiations.
Senior Conservatives anxious that the government is drifting towards a no-deal Brexit, including the business minister Richard Harrington, had demanded that May set a two-week deadline for securing a settlement.
Downing Street also reiterated the government’s objections to the amendment tabled by Cooper and the former Conservative minister Nick Boles, paving the way for an extension of article 50.
Labour announced on Tuesday that it would whip its MPs to support the Cooper-Boles amendment, despite fears among some frontbenchers that voters would regard it as a bid to thwart Brexit.