In a series of votes in the United Kingdom’s Parliament, Members of Parliament (MPs) handed the Government another defeat and seized control of the Brexit agenda, voting for an amendment that will see a series of indicative votes take place on Wednesday.
The indicative votes will see Parliament debate alternative ways forward with Brexit and vote on each possible move in order to see if they can reach a consensus.
MPs voted by 329 to 302 to take control of Brexit and will now attempt to find a compromise that they can rally around to break the impasse within Parliament and the Government.
The vote came after the Labour Party decided not to move its amendment for a customs union in order to secure votes for the indicative votes, while another three junior ministers have resigned, including Housing Minister, Richard Harrington, Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt and Health Minister Steve Brine, apparently in order to vote against the Government.
In total, 30 Conservative MPs voted against the Government and for the amendment that gave Parliament control of the Brexit process.
Labour MP Margaret Beckett introduced a second motion that would require Government to debate leaving without a deal versus requesting an extension, a debate that would have taken place seven days before Brexit. But Beckett’s motion was narrowly rejected by 314 to 311.
The Government’s original motion that outlined the next steps in the Brexit process, as amended by the first vote giving control to Parliament, was also passed by 327 votes to 300, amounting to a second defeat for the Government since Parliament gained control of the process.
