Whether its the right thing to do
I know what Sun Tsu would say.
Kenneth Clarke in his intervention to Grieve's speech seemed to warn him not, on previous form, to trust this government.
@IanDunt
If rumours true that govt only concession on meaningful vote is on parts A and B of Grieves then there are some limited concessions there.
For instance it is first moment that motion on Brexit deal has a date enshrined in law, for November 30th, rather than just relying on a Davis promise.
But it does nothing to give Commons right to direct what happens if deal rejected (except perhaps via an amendment to the motion).
That is a major step down from where we were last week, where I really thought it could be won on basis of Lords amendment, not a compromise on a compromise amendment.
Robert Peston:
Theresa May has won today's Brexit battle but may have lost the war.
What do I mean?
Well in half an hour or so we'll have confirmation that MPs will (narrowly) reject the Lords' amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, that would give parliament the power to force the PM back into negotiations with Brussels if MPs and Lords reject whatever Brexit deal she ultimately negotiates (phew - that was a mouthful).
But the price she is paying for that victory, the price she is paying to Tory Remainer rebels led by Dominic Grieve, is that she has agreed to redraft the Bill, when it returns to the Lords, to take account of the substance of Grieve's own latterly drafted amendent to the bill.
The wheeler-dealing happened in fraught and dramatic negotiations involving Grieve, the chief whip Smith and the solicitor general Buckland, some hugger mugger in corridors, some (unusually) on the floor of the Commons.
May is conceding
1) that within seven days of May agreeing a Brexit deal, a motion to approve said deal must go to the Commons
2) that if there is no Brexit deal agreed by 30 November this year, the government must seek approval for its next course of action from MPs,
and 3) May will consider how to capture Grieve's other demand that MPs and Lords must be able to instruct the government on how to proceed should there be no Brexit deal by 15 Feb 2019.
Arguably this transfers considerable power to MPs over the shape of a future Brexit deal. And it probably means that a no-deal Brexit is no longer any kind of realistic prospect.
It means that if May really believes she was able to put negotiating pressure on the rest of the EU by threatening to Brexit without a deal, she has lost that leverage.
In other words, one of her favourite catchphrases - that no deal is better than a bad deal - is dead. And that will be official in just a few days, when the bill returns to the Lords
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