It appears a cross-party group of lawmakers who have been conspiring for weeks to wrest power away from Theresa May’s government has emerged victories after a contentious Monday evening vote.
During the vote on the “Letwin Amendment” , hordes of Tory backbenchers joined with opposition MPs, and even some government ministers (one of whom, Minister for Business and Industry Richard Harrington, resigned from the cabinet to support the amendment) to defy the government whips and vote to assume control over the Commons agenda. The amendment, which had been put forth by Tory MP Sir Oliver Letwin, passed by a slim margin of 329 vs. 302.
Here’s the text.
LETWIN Amendment A: Seeks to change the rules of parliament on March 27 in order to provide time for lawmakers to debate and hold indicative votes. It has been signed by more than 120 lawmakers. The result of any such indicative votes would not be binding on the government but if it showed a majority for an alternative Brexit path. A similar amendment voted on earlier this month lost by two votes, this is therefore expected to have a good chance of passing.
The amendment calls for time to be set aside on Wednesday for a series of ‘indicative votes’ on alternatives to the withdrawal agreement that May negotiated with the EU. The options will range from a ‘soft’ Brexit that could cross certain of May’s ‘red lines’ (like remaining in the customs union and/or single market), to a second referendum, to “no Brexit at all”.
Harrington wrote a scathing resignation letter, blaming May for “playing roulette with lives and livelihoods of the vast majority of people in this country.”
This evening I wrote to the PM to offer her my resignation pic.twitter.com/Z0QU5lbeJ1
— Richard Harrington (@Richard4Watford) March 25, 2019
The pound strengthened on the vote, which upped the odds of a ‘softer’ Brexit, or – like we said above – no Brexit.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2U8KdmG Tyler Durden