Brexit: Speaker John Bercow rules out third vote on Theresa May deal without substantial changes

John Bercow ruled that the prime minister cannot bring her EU Withdrawal Agreement back before MPs unless it is substantially different from the package which was decisively defeated last week.

The speaker’s ruling, announced in an unexpected statement to the Commons, throws a further obstacle in the way of Mrs May’s scramble to get a deal agreed by the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29.

Downing Street has indicated that Mrs May will not table a motion on a third “meaningful vote” ahead of Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels unless there is a realistic prospect of securing a majority in the Commons.

If no vote takes place over the coming days, she is expected to ask the leaders of the remaining 27 EU members for a lengthy extension to the two-year Article 50 negotiation process, delaying Brexit for months or even years beyond March 29.

The PM had been expected to then make a last-ditch attempt to get her deal through the Commons next week, effectively presenting MPs with a choice between the Withdrawal Agreement which they have already rejected twice, or a long wait for Brexit.

But Mr Bercow’s ruling could make that plan difficult to implement, unless Mrs May is able to negotiate some change to her deal before presenting it once more to MPs.

There was no immediate response from Downing Street to the statement by Mr Bercow. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The speaker did not warn us of the contents of the statement or indeed the fact that he was making one.”

The speaker cited the Commons rulebook Erskine May as he set out a convention dating back to 1604 that a defeated motion cannot be brought back in the same form during the course of a parliamentary session.

He said it was within the rules for a second vote to be held on the Withdrawal Agreement in March, because it had been substantially revised – including by the addition of three new documents – since its defeat by 230 votes in January.

“If the government wishes to bring forward a new proposition that is neither the same nor substantially the same as that disposed of by the House on March 12, this would be entirely in order,” he said.

“What the government cannot legitimately do is resubmit to the House the same proposition – or substantially the same proposition – as that of last week, which was rejected by 149 votes.”

When asked whether there would have to be “new political agreement”, Mr Bercow replied that “in all likelihood” this would be needed.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has urged Mrs May to postpone any further vote on her deal, warning it would be “absurd” to bring it back to the Commons without first securing change from Brussels.