Una nasty surprise for Theresa May during the session held this afternoon in the House of Commons. The Premier did not expect in the least that the president of the UK Parliament, John Bercow, forbade the third vote on the agreement stipulated with the European Union, after the two resounding rejections arrived last week and in January.
During his speech, Bercow explained that Downing Street will not be able to propose the same agreement for the umpteenth time - despite the small changes introduced a week ago - due to the rules contained in a parliamentary regulation of 1844 and even a precedent dating back to 1604.
“If the government wants to propose a new motion that is not the same or substantially the same – said the speaker – this would be perfectly in order. But the government cannot propose to the Chamber the same agreement or substantially the same text of last week already voted with 149 votes against. Mine is not the last word but it indicates the test that the government must pass if it wants Parliament to be called to vote for the third time”.
Why two yes and three no? Because last March 12, the Government had provided the House of Commons with legal reassurances and clarifications not contained in the agreement rejected in January. The text that May planned to re-propose to parliamentarians on Wednesday 20 January is instead identical to the one rejected last week.
Simply put, unless the government makes further changes, the agreement cannot be revoked.
Un Theresa May's spokeswoman expressed amazement, stating that Bercow did not "warn us of his statement in advance", adding that he did not want to comment on it, but that for now the premier "is not in a position" to propose a new vote as talks are still underway with the dissidents. The solicitor general of the government, Robert Buckland, instead criticized Bercow, speaking of constitutional "interventionism".
In the meantime, an EU source from Brussels lets it be known that the 27 are ready to wait for next week as well and evaluate a request to postpone "up to an hour before" the March 29 exit deadline.
In fact, we recall that on Thursday, the executive managed to get a motion approved that will allow it to ask the EU to postpone Brexit. The will of the Government was to ask for a short postponement - until 30 June - in order to convince the dissidents to approve the agreement with the EU. At this point, it becomes more probable that there will be a much longer postponement.
