Theresa May has met Tory MPs tonight in a last-ditch effort to try and persuade them to vote for the Brady amendment tomorrow. She said that she would go back to Brussels and push for ‘fundamental changes’ to the backstop. But to do that, she needed to be able to show the EU that parliament was behind her—and so, MPs had to vote for the Brady amendment.
May said that the government would whip in favour of Brady, essentially making it government policy. (Some in the room, though, say that May suggested in one answer that this would be subject to Cabinet agreement).
Getting the Brady amendment through will be an uphill task. As Katy reported earlier, the ERG is currently not planning to vote for it. But it is hard to argue with the logic that the EU won’t listen to any request for changes to the backstop unless May can show that this would get the withdrawal agreement through parliament.
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