Letter from Westminster: What does Oliver Letwin’s constitutional revolution mean?

An ingenious group of backbench MPs have devised a way to take over the functions of the government temporarily

The constitutional revolution devised by Oliver Letwin, Yvette Cooper, Dominic Grieve, Nick Boles and Hilary Benn has finally broken through the last defences in the Palace of Westminster.

The vote by the House of Commons on Monday night to “take control of Brexit” was the culmination of a long march through the thickets of parliamentary procedure.

Different backbenchers have several times proposed versions of the plan, getting closer each time. Cooper lost by 23 votes two months ago. Benn lost by two votes two weeks ago. On Monday Letwin finally succeeded, by a margin of 27 votes, boosted by three ministers who resigned from the government to vote for it – Steve Brine, Alistair Burt and Richard Harrington.