Theresa May and the government are reportedly drawing up plans to put a permanent Customs Union and Single Market access – key components of the Labour Party’s alternative Brexit plan – on the table in a series of potentially crucial indicative votes to be held in the coming days, according to a Senior Tory Minister.
According to Sky News sources, a Senior Tory Minister has strongly indicated that Theresa May is now ready and willing to allow MPs to break the Brexit impasse by allowing a series of 6 different indicative votes on a variety of different Brexit scenarios.
The indicative votes will reportedly be on:
- The PM’s deal plus a permanent Customs Union
- The PM’s deal plus a Customs Union and Single Market access
- A second referendum
- A standard free-trade agreement
- A No Deal Brexit
- Revoking Article 50
Also according to Sky News, “senior figures within government had been speaking openly about getting behind the idea“, and a source within the government reportedly stated that the series of indicative votes were a “way to find a solution” and that the government were now in “panic mode“.
On Monday, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, indicated that Mrs May would not be allowed to table her Brexit withdrawal bill for a third time unless she made substantial changes to it.
However, should the government somehow manage to circumvent Mr Bercow’s decision, it is still extremely unlikely that Mrs May’s deal will gain the approval of MPs.
In January, the PM’s deal was voted down by a margin of 230 votes, followed by a slightly reduced margin of 149 in a second vote last week.
Following this, the de facto Deputy Prime Minister, David Lidington, stated in the House of Commons that MPs would have further chances to express their views on the way forward – a statement that strongly indicated indicative votes would be brought forward by the government.
And according to the Sky News source, the the Prime Minister was “bound” by Mr Lidington’s commitments made in the House of Commons.
