May aims to bring back Brexit deal for third vote

Theresa May hopes to bring her Brexit deal back for a third 'meaningful vote' this week after receiving promises of support if she agrees to quit.

Ahead of MPs taking control of the House of Commons on Wednesday for a series of indicative votes on Brexit alternatives, Downing Street confirmed on Wednesday that the process had been started to allow MPs to sit on Friday in case of a third meaningful vote.

The Prime Minister's team was thought to be confident of winning over some of the various factions that have previously been highly sceptical of her deal when it was defeated by a majority of 149 earlier this month.

In order to gain the ERG's support, May must promise to quit before the second stage of Brexit talks, The Times reported. She is due to meet Tory MPs on Wednesday, with her whips believing that a promise to quit will result in around 20 more Tory MPs switching onto her side in the vote.

The margin of defeat in the second meaningful vote in early March was not quite as bad as the 230-vote thrashing in January but was still much larger than would be made up by the 70 or so Eurosceptics that make up the European Research Group and the 10 in Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.

On Tuesday, hardline Brexiter and ERG chair Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated that he would back May's Brexit deal, which was followed by Boris Johnson also swinging in line overnight.

May, however, will not announce her departure until the ERG deliver the votes and get the deal over the line, according to tweets from the Financial Times' political editor.

Gaining the support of the ERG was suggested by some reports to be enough to persuade the DUP to support the deal, even though the DUP had said only a day earlier that it favoured a long delay over May's withdrawal agreement.

If May's deal wins the European Union has agreed to an extension until May 22 but if it is defeated for a third time the EU has granted a shorter extension until 12 April, in order for the government and MPs to agree on a new way forward, including a longer extension.

In this case, the EU has pencilled in an extension until 31 March as its preferred option, the Guardian reported.

Debating on indicatives votes will begin in the Commons from around 1400 GMT on Wednesday, with voting expected to start at around 1900 GMT and finish before 2200 GMT.

The pound was up 0.2% against the dollar and euro at 1.3241 and 1.1751 respectively, at just after 1320 GMT.