MPs have been told to stop behaving like “children” and vote in favour of Theresa May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday evening.
Opening the final day of debate on the deal in the Commons, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox made a final plea for Tory rebels to back the government.
He said MPs were “playing with people’s lives” and contemplating a no-deal Brexit would be the “height of irresponsibility”.
“Do we opt for order, or do we choose chaos?” he said. “What are you playing at? What are you doing? You are not children in the playground, you are legislators.”
May will spend the rest of today holding last-ditch talks with Tory MPs to try and persuade them to support her.
But the prime minister looks to be heading towards a crushing defeat this evening, when MPs vote at around 8pm.
She told her cabinet earlier today that she would respond “quickly” to the result, amid expectations of some kind of immediate statement in the Commons.
May’s official spokesman said the PM stressed the government was a “servant of the people” and that she “passionately” believes it must deliver on the referendum result.
Responding to German foreign minister Heiki Maas’s suggestion there could be “further talks” with the EU if the deal is voted down, the spokesman said: “The prime minister’s focus is on the vote tonight and on trying to secure support for her deal in the Commons.”
Jeremy Corbyn has suggested he is ready to table a vote of no-confidence in the government if it loses the vote.
But it appears unlikely that Labour can muster enough votes to force a general election.
Both Tory rebels and the DUP have indicated they would continue to back the government in a confidence vote.
The Labour leader is likely to come under increased pressure to back a second referendum in order to break the deadlock in parliament should he fail to secure an election.
Michael Gove, the most prominent Brexiteer who supports the deal, this morning warned MPs about the danger of a no deal exit.
“If we don’t vote for the deal tonight, in the words of Jon Snow, ‘winter is coming’,” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leading backbench Tory Brexiteer, said “fear mongering” about a no-deal Brexit was “fundamentally flawed”.
The DUP, which props up May’s government, has also not been persuaded by last minute assurances from the EU that it does not want to trigger the controversial backstop plan.