Boris Johnson is on collision course with the House of Lords after Tory MPs reaffirmed his Brexit plan to break international law.
The Commons agreed to reinsert the controversial proposal back into the UK Internal Market Bill, kicking off a round of parliamentary “ping pong” with the upper chamber.
No formal vote was needed as MPs agreed to nod through the change, without any opposition.
The Lords had gutted the legislation in recent weeks, inflicting some of the biggest government defeats of modern times.
Johnson has said that the plan is to break the law “in a limited and specific way”, claiming that the bill would act as a “safety net” if the UK disagreed with the EU over links between Britain and Northern Ireland.
But it has been roundly condemned by Brussels as a breach of trust, by Tory Brexiteers like former leader Lord Howard and by US president-elect Joe Biden.
In a bid to pave the way for a possible deal on UK-EU trade, the government said on Monday that it could actually ditch the plan from the bill if there was progress in talks in Brussels.
The Commons vote means that there will be a prolonged battle this week with peers, who are expected on Wednesday to stand firm and again tell ministers to dump any clauses that break international law.
MPs were preparing to overturn all of the Lords amendments, including separate legislative moves to protect devolved powers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Commons voted with large majorities to reintroduce moves to give ministers the power to override the Brexit divorce deal if required and to allow Westminster to have the final say over some policies contested by devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The UK Internal Market Bill sets out the way that trade within the UK will work once it is outside the EU’s single market and customs union.
During the debate, business minister Paul Scully explained the government wants to retain these clauses in their current form in the bill until discussions with the EU “have successfully concluded”.
He also confirmed the government would be prepared to remove or deactivate three of the clauses if solutions are agreed to during talks with the EU.
Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said the offer sounded like the “beginnings of the grinding of the wheels of the climbdown”.
“Three months of posturing, undermining our reputation in the world, and today an hour before the debate begins we see some preparations maybe for the brakes being applied before we go over the cliff.”