Speaker John Bercow has thrown his biggest curve ball yet at the Brexit process, moving to block the Government bringing back another Meaningful Vote to the Commons. Bercow said the Government must now meet the test of “substantial changes” in order for a new meaningful vote motion to be tabled. His rationale for allowing MV2 was that it “could credibly be argued that it was a different proposition” from the first. Suddenly the Speaker has decided that he cares about Erskine May. Picking and choosing which parts of the constitution to respect as he pleases… 

However no-dealers’ celebrations at Bercow’s decision may be premature. May will now need to seek substantive changes from the EU to hold MV3. There is no guarantee that those changes will be in the right direction…