Bercow blocks third vote on May's Brexit deal

House of Commons speaker John Bercow appears to have blocked Theresa May's attempts to pass her Brexit deal through Parliament, stating that no meaningful vote could take place without significant changes to the proposal.

There had been speculation that the government might try to circumvent Bercow’s ruling of no repeat votes, which he first cited last week and is based on a rule in the Erskine May ledger of parliamentary practice, by having a vote on a motion to ignore the ruling in pursuit of a vote this week.

"I understand that the government may be thinking of bringing meaningful vote three before the house either tomorrow or even on Friday, if the house opts to sit that day. Therefore, in order that there should be no misunderstanding, I wish to make clear that I do expect the government to meet the test of change. They should not seek to circumvent my ruling by means of tabling either a notwithstanding motion or a tabling motion. The table office has been instructed that no such motions will be accepted," said Bercow.

The Speaker's decision greatly reduces the chances of May's deal returning to the Commons this week, at a time when more and more hard-line Brexiteer MPs were starting to throw their weight behind her proposals in fear that the alternative might be no Brexit at all.

However, since the ruling a statement from Downing Street said that EU leaders had approved reassurances over the temporary nature of the Irish backstop since the last vote on May's deal, while the Prime Minister's official spokesman also said that the UK's departure date, originally 29 March, had also changed.

Some Conservative MPs reacted angrily to the ruling, with former Brexit Minister David Jones telling BBC News that the afternoon's events broke "every precedent you can imagine" and accused Bercow of "operating without any consistency at all".

Bercow's move has perhaps invoked particular ire as it came after MPs voted to pass a Business Motion that disapplied the precedent for the purposes of indicative votes, with 33 Conservative MPs defying the party line to side in favour of the motion.

The Speaker also approved eight motions for MPs to vote on with the aim of laying down a path for the next direction in Brexit negotiations, with these spanning the entire range of possible alternatives, from a no-deal Brexit on one side to the cancellation of Article 50 and Britain's exit from the European Union on the other.

The Commons will hold indicative votes on the motions this evening, potentially steering the Brexit process in a new direction.