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If Brexit Secretary David Davis thought a last-ditch promise to give MPs and peers a vote on the final Brexit deal would help his perilous parliamentary situation, he was mistaken.
A small but potentially deadly group of Conservative MPs who hold the power of a parliamentary defeat in their hands are not going to be easily bought off when it comes to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill.
The government can now argue it is offering MPs a meaningful vote on the Brexit deal with the opportunity for backbenchers to table amendments. It also moves the government forward on a promise at the end of the negotiating round with the EU in September, to give “direct effect” to the withdrawal agreement by writing it into U.K. law, giving “certainty, clarity and stability for citizens in the U.K.”
So why aren’t rebels pushing for a softer Brexit happy? It all comes down to timing.
They argue that what’s on offer is effectively a rubber-stamp vote on something that is already an inevitability. The choice before MPs come 2019 is likely to be: Accept the government’s deal or opt for the hardest of no-deal Brexits. Some Brexiteers may be comfortable with that, but for soft Brexiteers it is the worst option possible. They want a vote that would force the government back to the negotiating table. [...]
An already big hole looks to have been made even bigger by Prime Minister Theresa May’s headline-grabbing plan — announced last week — to enshrine the date and time of Brexit in the bill.
One Tory rebel, who did not want to be named, described it as a “daft sop to Brexiteers who want a sort of no-deal outcome.” Another MP, Heidi Allen, said on Twitter that Davis’ concession was “pointless if we have enshrined a drop dead date in the Bill.” She argued that if the government gets an 11th-hour deal there would be “no time.” [...]