Tag: Acceptance

Theresa May has narrowly avoided a humiliating defeat over the Brexit bill after Conservative rebels accepted significant concessions from the government on the “meaningful vote” when it returns to the House of Lords next week. One MP in the meeting, which included former cabinet minister Justine Greening and Ed Vaizey said that May told the group it was “a matter of trust”. The Tory rebels, led by the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, later praised the government for “responding positively” to their concerns and claimed that they would be addressed when the EU withdrawal bill goes back to the Lords on Monday. A Downing Street source claimed that the prime minister had agreed only to ongoing discussions, raising the prospect of an angry showdown when a delegation of rebel MPs sits down with ministers to thrash out a deal. David Davis’s Brexit department cast further doubt over the rebels’ claims, issuing a statement which read: “We have not, and will not, agree to the House of Commons binding the Government’s hands in the negotiations.” MPs voted by 324 votes to 298 to back the government in rejecting an amendment passed by peers in April that would strengthen the hand of the Commons in the event of it rejecting the final Brexit deal. The proposals would mean that in the event of parliament rejecting the final Brexit deal, ministers would have seven days to set out a fresh approach. The Brexit secretary, David Davis, opened the debate by saying that the government could not accept anything that could undermine May, hinting that the amendments proposed by Lords and Tory rebels would hamper negotiations. The former cabinet minister Justine Greening, and George Freeman, Downing Street’s former policy guru, spoke in support of the rebel plans, heightening alarm among government ministers. In between discussions, he spoke to ministers on the front benches, including May, scribbling notes on a Commons paper. “We will now work with the government to get acceptable amendments tabled in the Lords to address this.” However, the Brexit minister Steve Baker appeared to rule out the government backing Grieve’s plans for parliament to take back control.