A rare political discussion on Newsnight last night, when a Labour MP – who voted against May’s deal three times; an ERGer – who voted against May’s deal three times; and a remain former-Tory MP who was expelled from the party by Boris; all sat in agreement, in anticipation of backing Boris’s new deal on Saturday. Even Layla Moran conceded Boris had achieved what most thought impossible…
In the most predictable development of the day, Bercow has selected Grieve’s beefed-up anti-prorogation amendment, despite it being even more contrived than the version that was rejected by Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing last week. There’s a sizable number of Tories who have put their name to it already, former minister Alastair Burt co-sponsoring the amendment with Hilary Benn despite not even rebelling on the weaker Grieve amendment last week. Wonder what Jeremy Hunt thinks about one of his leading supporters co-sponsoring an amendment as hostile as this?
The Tories are expected to put a ‘hard three-line whip’ against the amendment, rebels think they’ve convinced ministers to abstain. Even with less than a week left, May surely can’t allow Cabinet Ministers to flagrantly flaunt a three-line whip…