THE HOUSE OF Commons has reached a tie on an amendment to a bill that proposes to hold more indicative votes on Monday.
There was a 10 minute delay before the votes were announced to confirm the tie. The results were then announced, revealing that 310 MPs voted for more indicative votes on Monday, and 310 voted against it.
The House Speaker John Bercow had the deciding vote, and voted against the amendment to the business motion, quoting precedent.
In accordance with precedent…. I cast my vote with the Nos. The Nos have it.
He said that the precedent was in 1993… “and I’ll believe that it was appertaining to the Maastricht Treaty Bill”.
The Maastricht Treaty Bill was the implementation of a treaty on the European Union into British law. Opposition to Maastricht led to the foundation of the Anti-Federalist League which ultimately led to the creation of Ukip.
Alastair Campbell, a Remain-supporter and former spokesperson for Tony Blair, told Sky News that the vote outlined the scale of the divide in the House of Commons.
The Yvette Cooper motion, the main motion of the evening, was then passed immediately after this vote, by a majority of 1. The final tally was 312 to 311. The motion would force the Prime Minister to ask the EU for an extension to stop for a no-deal Brexit.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Cooper said that “I could never have imagined that 9 days out from Brexit day we still don’t know what will happen.”
“We have been warned that food prices would go up by 10% in the event of no-deal,” she said, advising that this should be avoided.
We would immediately lose access to the European Arrest Warrant… the kind of border delays that have led to the NHS to stockpiling… major manufacturers like Haribo and Burberry have told me how hard they would be hit by WTO tariffs and border delays.
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