No-Deal Brexit More Likely As MPs Reject Bid To Extend Article 50 Deadline

Calling on parliament to reject Cooper’s plan, May asked MPs to “send an emphatic message” to Brussels about the deal the UK wanted. 

“Today we have the chance to show the EU what it will take to get a deal through this House of Commons, what it will take to move beyond the confusion and division and uncertainty that now hangs over us, and onto the bright, new, close, open relationship we want to build and can build with our European friends in the years ahead,” May told the Commons. 

But after the key victory for the government in parliament on Tuesday night, remain-minded MPs were left fearing the UK was exposed to the threat of no-deal – the legal default should May fail to secure a Brexit deal parliament can support. 

Appealing for MPs to back her amendment, Cooper had said it offered a “safety net” against no-deal. 

She added: “Now I’ve always believed that the prime minister would not let this happen, I always believed that she would flinch when it came to the crunch, that she is not the sort of person who would want to make other people suffer because of her delays and mistakes.

The 17 Tory MPs who voted for Cooper’s amendment 

Heidi Allen 

Guto Bebb 

Nick Boles 

Ken Clarke 

Jonathan Djanogly 

George Freeman 

Justine Greening 

Dominic Grieve 

Sam Gyimah 

Phillip Lee 

Oliver Letwin 

Antoinette Sandbach 

Nicholas Soames

Anna Soubry 

Andrew Stephenson

Ed Vaizey 

Sarah Wollaston 

“But my worry is that when I look into her eyes now, I am worried that that has changed because she is trapped. Because every time the Prime Minister has had the chance to pull back and to reach out, she’s done the opposite.” 

It came as hardline Brexiteers in the ERG faction of Tory MPs confirmed its MPs would join the DUP in offering May a “last chance” to secure a deal.

They were set to throw their weight behind a government-backed amendment by Conservative backbencher Sir Graham Brady that says the Commons will support a deal if “alternative arrangements” to the backstop were found. 

Ministers think MPs underlining their position will strengthen May’s hand in talks with EU leaders. 

Confirming he would vote with the government, Tory former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said Cooper’s amendment would have led to “understandable fears that actually it is a ruse to reverse or frustrate Brexit”.

He added: “I want to, for my part, strengthen the hand of this Prime Minister and this Government in returning to Brussels and I believe that there are a range of changes that would render the Withdrawal Agreement and in particular the backstop acceptable to myself, but also more generally across this House.

“That could be in the form of a sunset mechanism or an exit mechanism over which we exercise control but with assurances to our friends and partners in Dublin around its exercise.”