Fresh Brexit defeat for Theresa May as Grieve amendment passes

An amendment that will force the Prime Minister to come to parliament with her plan B for Brexit within three days if, as expected, her already negotiated agreement is rejected in next Tuesday’s meaningful vote, was passed in the Commons by 308 to 297.

Previously, May had 21 days after defeat before she had to explain to what steps the government would take.

There was controversy that the amendment was even allowed to be voted on.

Speaker John Bercow was forced to defend his judgement for an hour in the face of increasingly furious points of order from Brexiteers.

In a surreal moment, one Tory MP even questioned Bercow’s bias because the Speaker’s wife’s car has a pro-European bumper sticker.

The amendment, tabled by Dominic Grieve, the Remain supporting former attorney general, was to change the government’s business motion.

Downing Street had thought the motion unamendable.

And according to The Times, the clerks in Commons who advise the Speaker, had also told thought that the motion was unamendable.

Bercow, however, persisted.

When put to him in the chamber that the Government's motion was "unamendable", Bercow told the Chamber: "My understanding is the motion is amendable, I'm clear in my mind about that."

After heckles from the Tory benches, he added: "I'm trying to do the right thing and make the right judgements. That is what I have tried to do and what I will go on doing."

Deputy chairman of the Brexiteer European Research Group of Tory Backbenchers, Mark Francois, was livid.

The Tory MP for Rayleigh and Wickford quoted the original business motion, which said: "No motion to vary or supplement the provisions of this order shall be made except by a Minister of the Crown and the question on any such motion shall be put forthwith."

He continued: "Mr Speaker, I have not been in this House as long as you but I have been here for 18 years and I have never known any occasion when any Speaker has overruled a motion of the House of Commons.

"You have said again and again you're a servant of this House and we take you at your word, and I have heard you many times on points of order when people have challenged you say 'I cannot do X or Y because I am bound by a motion of the House'.

"You have done that multiple times in my experience, so why are you overruling this today?"

Bercow defended his decision: "The answer is simple," he said. "He referred to a motion and he said that no motion in this context, for the purposes of precis, may be moved other then by a Minister of the Crown. Tis so.

"We're not speaking here of a motion but of an amendment to a motion. I'm sorry but there is a distinction between a motion and an amendment.

"What he says about a motion I accept but it doesn't relate to an amendment. That is the answer."

Francois was apoplectic, yelling "ridiculous".

Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom noted there were "some concerns" about Bercow's decision and asked him to confirm that his decision was taken with "full advice" from the Commons clerk and other parliamentary advisers.

She asked him to publish the advice, which prompted cheers from Tory MPs.

Bercow confirmed he consulted the clerk and officials, saying the advice was given to him "privately and that's absolutely proper".

He said: "It's also true I had a written note from the clerk from which I quoted in responding to the first point of order."

Many more MPs jumped to their feet ot make points of order, to question Bercow and accuse him of incapable of being a fair and even handed judge.

Tory MP Adam Holloway accused Bercow of having a "derogatory" sticker about Brexit in his car.

He said: "We've all noticed in recent months a sticker in your car making derogatory comments about Brexit. Have you driven that car with the sticker on?"

Bercow said that was a "factual error" and told MPs the car belonged to his wife.

He said: "That sticker on the subject of Brexit happens to be affixed to or in the windscreen of my wife's car, and I'm sure he wouldn't suggest for one moment that a wife is somehow the property or chattel of her husband. She is entitled to her views, that sticker is not mine and that's the end of it."

The SNP MP Pete Wishart raised his own point of order, to point out that MPs were “bored” of all the points of order.”

"The nation is increasingly embarrassed by all this, how do we therefore get on with today's debate?"

MPs have now resumed the debate on the government’s Brexit agreement.