Brexit vote: MPs vote for Theresa May to renegotiate Irish backstop with EU

Follow updates from Westminster as they unfolded throughout the day

Brexit: Graham Brady wins amendment: Ayes 317, Noes 301

MPs have authorised Theresa May to go back to Brussels to renegotiate a key part of her Brexit deal after a series of dramatic Commons votes.

Different Brexit factions tabled amendments to Ms May’s exit plan, which she was forced to bring back to the Commons on Tuesday after MPs overwhelmingly rejected her Brexit deal earlier this month.

Amid an apparent compromise between Tory Remainers, Brexiteers and her DUP allies, MPs backed a bid by Tory grandee Sir Graham Brady to scrap the Irish backstop and replace it with “alternative arrangements”, requiring the prime minister to go back to Brussels.

However the path ahead looks rocky, as the European Commission immediately sent out a statement saying the deal was “not open for renegotiation”.

Follow updates from Westminster as they unfolded throughout the day​

Key Points

• MPs order Theresa May to renegotiate backstop in critical Brexit votes
• ... as EU says Brexit deal is 'not open for renegotiation' 
• Jeremy Corbyn says he will finally meet the PM to discuss Brexit
• Brexit plan C emerges after Jacob Rees-Mogg joins forces with Tory Remainers
• Ex-Labour MP sentenced to three months in prison for lying to police over driving offence

[29 January 2019 07:46 · Shehab.Khan]

Welcome to The Independent's coverage of, what is expected to be, a fascinating day in Westminster. 

[29 January 2019 07:53 · Shehab.Khan]

The timetable in the House of Commons for today:

1130 Treasury questions

1230 A 10-minute rule motion on Smoking Prohibition (National Health Service Premises)

1245 Brexit deal debate and votes

Speaker John Bercow will select a series of amendments that MPs will vote on. At this stage it is unclear how many he will allow to proceed to a vote. 

The votes are expected to commence at approximately 1900. 

[29 January 2019 07:54 · Shehab.Khan]

Worth noting that although amendments are not legally binding, if any of them secure a majority there will be considerable on Ms May to act on the will of MPs.

[29 January 2019 07:55 · Shehab.Khan]

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Tony Lloyd said Labour's priority in the Commons Brexit debate on Tuesday would be to rule out a no-deal break. 

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme he said: 

Labour's priority today is to make sure that no-deal is taken completely off the table, that Theresa May cannot be under any sense of ambiguity that she can use the tactic of saying 'It is my deal or no deal'. No-deal must disappear.

He said the shadow cabinet would meet ahead of the debate to decide whether to back an amendment by Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Tory Nick Boles to delay Brexit if there is no deal by the end of February, although he suggested there was a "lot of sympathy" for the plan.

We have got to be sure that the amendments we are supporting will take no-deal off the table.

There are other ways of achieving that. Labour has its own official amendment down."

[29 January 2019 08:08 · Shehab.Khan]

Business Minister Richard Harrington warned that the patience of Tory MPs opposed to a no-deal break was running out.

"Many of us have been to see the Prime Minister and have told her the absolute catastrophe and disaster for jobs and the economy that no-deal would be," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"What she has asked us is that we give her another two weeks. The question is in two weeks time will there be an irrevocable undertaking that her deal will be brought back, amendable by exactly the kind of amendments there are today to rule out no Brexit, or, if a deal is not brought back, there is the same platform?

"If she is prepared to give that irrevocable undertaking - which means at the despatch box or a similar instrument - many of us feel 'Well, OK for the sake of everything, we will give her two weeks'. But that is it."

[29 January 2019 08:12 · Shehab.Khan]

Former prime minister Tony Blair is set to give a speech this morning at 0830 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

[29 January 2019 08:12 · Shehab.Khan]

Here is some of our analysis on what you can expect to happen in today's Brexit votes:

[29 January 2019 08:17 · Shehab.Khan]

The international trade secretary Liam Fox is doing the media rounds this morning and has called for Brexiteers to support an amendment that has been put forward by Sir Graham Brady. 

He has said the UK is "willing to reopen the withdrawal agreement". 

[29 January 2019 08:19 · Shehab.Khan]

[29 January 2019 08:34 · Shehab.Khan]

Former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan has confirmed talks have been taking place for "some days" between MPs from the Remain and Leave wings of the Tory Party, co-ordinated by MP Kit Malthouse, to find a compromise way forward.

The discussions involved herself, Health Minister Stephen Hammond, and Solicitor General Robert Buckland from one wing of the party, and Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker from the Brexiteer side.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme she said their plan involved a "recasting" of the Northern Ireland backstop as "free trade agreement-lite" with a commitment on all sides there should be no hard border on the island of Ireland and an extended transition period to December 2021.