Theresa May has just finished a speech in which she made clear – without using those words – that the Government is going to lose tonight’s meaningful vote and that she is now planning for the next Commons confrontation on Brexit.
She managed to get one MP, Sir Edward Leigh, to withdraw his amendment on the basis that she was happy to work with him on ‘creative solutions’ to the backstop. She also promised that ‘the government will work harder at taking Parliament with us’ on Brexit.
But this harder work doesn’t seem to include any moves towards working with Labour on some kind of national unity movement to stop a no-deal Brexit. May spent a considerable amount of her speech attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to the deal, accusing him of acting in his own interest rather than that of the country.
Corbyn for his part produced a very halting speech even by his standards.
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