What has Michael Gove agreed – and does it take us closer to an EU trade deal?

Michael Gove, Boris Johnson’s ally during the EU referendum campaign, is central to selling an EU trade deal to Conservative MPs, writes John Rentoul

Michael Gove returns to Downing Street following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (Getty)

MPs went through one of the more peculiar of their traditional procedures last night, as they voted to reverse many of the amendments that the House of Lords had made to the UK Internal Market Bill. The number of each amendment that the government wanted to undo was read out by Nigel Evans, the deputy speaker, and a voice vote taken on each one. “I think the Ayes have it, the Ayes have it,” said Evans.

The opposition chose to put up a token resistance on four of the amendments, shouting “No” and forcing divisions. These were amendments to the controversial clauses in which Boris Johnson proposed to take the power to override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement – in other words to break international law. The government won each of those votes by majorities of at least 89, so the bill was sent back to the Lords with the original wording put back in.  

But then this morning the government announced that it will withdraw the controversial clauses anyway, having reached an agreement in principle on the Irish border provisions of the withdrawal agreement. Last night’s performance now looks even more like an elaborate pantomime put on purely for show.