Brexit news: MPs submit indicative vote plans as government rejects 'Revoke Article 50' petition
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MPs are gearing up for a series of votes on different Brexit scenarios after dramatically wresting control of the EU exit process from the government.
Different Brexit factions must put forward their preferred options by the end of the day for “indicative votes” on Wednesday, including bids for a Norway-style deal and a second referendum.
The move could pave the way for a softer Brexit, prompting infighting among Eurosceptic hardliners over whether to back Theresa May‘s deal instead.
On Tuesday, the prime minister’s Brexit strategy was left in disarray and her leadership under threat after three of her ministers resigned and MPs dramatically voted to take control of the process.
Her authority was left in tatters after 30 members of her party defied her instructions and voted for the move. Three government resigned in order to vote against the prime minister.
It comes as the government rejected a petition with more than 5.78 million signatures calling for Brexit to be halted by revoking article 50.
In an official response posted on the parliamentary petitions website, the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) said: “This government will not revoke Article 50.
“We will honour the result of the 2016 referendum and work with parliament to deliver a deal that ensures we leave the European Union.”
The petition will still be debated by MPs in the Commons’s secondary chamber Westminster Hall on 1 April.
A government minister will be required to respond to the petition, but there will be no vote on the action it demands.
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"People have to be ready to vote for what they can live with," Labour MP Mr Kinnock told BBC Radio 4's PM.
"Just saying 'This is my favourite option and nothing else will do' is not going to work, because we've got to be able to assess where people are in terms of what they can accept and then see the compromise that emerges.
"We've got to accept that there are trade-offs with every option and it's time for British politics to rediscover the lost art of compromise."
Labour has tabled a motion for Wednesday's indicative votes debate proposing its plan of a close economic relationship with the EU.
The plan includes a comprehensive customs union with a UK say on future trade deals; close alignment with the single market; matching new EU rights and protections; participation in EU agencies and funding programmes; and agreement on future security arrangements, including access to the European Arrest Warrant.
Jeremy Corbyn said: "The Government's approach to the Brexit negotiations has been an abject failure and this House must now come together to find a way forward.
"Labour's credible alternative plan can be negotiated with the EU and bring people together, whether they voted Leave or Remain.
"I urge MPs across the House to support our motion, deliver on the referendum result and negotiate a plan to protect manufacturing and jobs, guarantee rights and end the chaos that the Government is inflicting on our country."
Several motions for the indicative votes debate were tabled by members of the ERG, who collected signatures at a meeting of the Eurosceptic group on Tuesday evening.
ERG chair Jacob Rees-Mogg said the group was not tabling a motion as a bloc, but members were submitting proposals as individuals.
He said it remained unclear what voting system speaker John Bercow will choose for the indicative votes.
"There are apparently seven systems that could be used, including the one used for the Eurovision Song Contest, and it's left to the speaker's discretion," he said.
"It's a most extraordinary constitutional way of proceeding, with no precedent."
Mr Rees-Mogg said he had personally signed several motions and the ERG will meet again on Wednesday to discuss which way to vote on those selected by the speaker.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has urged his fellow Eurosceptics to back Theresa May's Brexit deal in an article for The Daily Mail.
The government has not put forward Theresa May's Brexit Withdrawal Agreement as an option for Wednesday's indicative votes in the Commons, a Number 10 source has told the Press Association.
The source said the government had not tabled any motion.
No announcement has yet been made on whether Conservative MPs will be granted a free vote.
"I think that it's still possible that we could go for no-deal," Boris Johnson has told ITV News.
"What I want to hear is, if this Withdrawal Agreement is to make any sense at all, then there's got to be a massive change in the UK's negotiating approach."
ERG member Mark Francois said MPs had been forced to run around the Palace of Westminster to get their motions tabled before the deadline of the end of Tuesday's sitting.
"We are deciding the destiny of our country and we are reduced to MPs sprinting up and down corridors with pieces of paper in their hands," he said. "That's how chaotic this Letwin method has become."
Mr Francois said he believed the prime minister was preparing to table her Withdrawal Agreement for a third meaningful vote at 5pm on Thursday, because the statutory instrument to change the date of Brexit leaves open the possibility of EU withdrawal taking place on 22 May.
The piece of secondary legislation, which will come before the Commons on Wednesday, replaces the scheduled date of 29 March with 22 May, if Ms May has got her deal, or 12 April if she has failed.
"The whole thing has been deliberately written to facilitate MV3 on Thursday or Friday," he said. "I'm pretty sure they are lining us up for MV3 on Thursday."
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