Theresa May, struggling not to lose her voice, has made one final plea for MPs to approve her Brexit deal on Tuesday evening.
Speaking in the Commons while sucking on a cough sweet, the prime minister insisted she had secured “legally binding” changes from the EU which ensure the Irish backstop cannot be permanent.
“A bad deal would be even worse than no deal, but best of all is a good deal, and this is a good deal,” the prime minister told the sombre Commons chamber.
But the changes, won in Strasbourg late on Monday night, were not sufficient to convince enough pro-Brexit Tory MPs to back May in the vote. The Northern Irish DUP, which props up the minority Conservative government, has said it will once again vote against. The Eurosceptic ERG have pledged to oppose it too.
Labour has also said it won’t vote for May’s deal, as Jeremy Corbyn accused the government of trying to “fool” its own backbenchers – and the British people.
Many MPs had been waiting to see whether Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, would conclude the revised agreement would allow the UK to unilaterally exit the backstop – a key sticking point in the negotiations. But his conclusion it did not, in a written legal opinion published on Tuesday morning, came as a huge blow to the PM.
If MPs reject the deal on Tuesday evening, they will then vote on whether to pursue a no-deal Brexit, or to delay Brexit by extending Article 50.
Charles Walker, a senior Tory backbencher, said if the deal was voted down May would have no choice but to call a snap general election.
“If it doesn’t go through tonight, as sure as night follows day, there will be a general election within a matter of days or weeks. It is not sustainable, the current situation in parliament,” he told BBC Radio 4′s World at One programme.
Nicky Morgan, the former Tory education secretary, said she did not think May would be able to stay in office “for very much longer” if the deal was rejected.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said Labour would “take every opportunity” to force a vote of no confidence in the government to trigger an election – but would not do so today.
Speaking in the Commons, May said told MPs “this is the moment” and “this is the time for us to come together, back this motion and get the deal done because only then can we get on with what we came here to do, what we were sent here to do.”
The prime minister added: “We cannot serve our country by overturning a democratic decision of the British people.
“We cannot serve by prolonging a debate the British people now wish to see settle.
“And we cannot serve by refusing to compromise, reinforcing instead of healing the painful divisions we see within our society and across our country.”