May defeated as Tory eurosceptics abstain on Brexit amendment
Prime Minister Theresa May suffered yet another humiliating defeat in parliament on Thursday as the hard right anti-EU wing of her party rejected her Brexit plan.
A government motion which suggested Downing Street supported ruling out a no-deal Brexit upset MPs who are happy to leave the bloc without any agreement. Most of them abstained from Thursday's vote, condemning May to defeat.
While the result – 303 to 258 – was not binding, it was a damaging blow to May's authority and ability to deliver with only 44 days to go until Britain departs the EU.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the result shows there is no majority for the prime minister’s course of action in dealing with Brexit”.
“Yet again her government has been defeated. The government cannot keen on ignoring parliament or ploughing on towards 29 March without a coherent plan.”
In a statement issued through Downing Street May said she understood the concerns of her backbenchers.
“While we didn’t secure the support of the Commons this evening, the prime minister continues to believe, and the debate itself indicated, that far from objecting to securing changes to the backstop that will allow us to leave with a deal, there was a concern from some Conservative colleagues about taking no deal off the table at this stage,” the statement said.
“The motion on 29 January remains the only one the House of Commons has passed expressing what it does want, and that is legally binding changes to address concerns about the backstop. The government will continue to pursue this with the EU to ensure we leave on time on 29 March.”
The government is still trying to get the EU to agree legally binding changes to the Irish backstop, in order to win support from Democratic Unionist party and pro-Brexit MPs for her deal.
May wants a time limit on the backstop, a unilateral exit mechanism or its replacement with “alternative arrangements”. She believes this would prove to opponents the UK would not be trapped in the customs union designed as a way to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
But the EU’s most senior officials have said in turn that the bloc will not reopen the withdrawal agreement and want May to come up with better solutions.
It also emerged on Thursday that Corbyn would hold talks in Brussels next week with chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, the Guardian reported.
Corbyn has demanded May to sign up to a customs union in return for Labour's support.
Last week he wrote to May with a list of areas he wanted commitments on including close alignment with the single market and protection for environmental standards and workers’ rights.
Corbyn also wants commitments on participation in EU agencies, funding programmes and security arrangements, such as the European arrest warrant, written into the deal.