MPs ‘accidentally’ vote in favour of joining a customs union with the EU

It took around three and a half years for MPs to finally decide which version of Brexit they were happy with, before the UK left the EU in January 2020.

But now it appears they have backed a dramatic reversal – and not entirely on purpose.

By a majority of just one – thanks to a tie-breaking decision by the Deputy Speaker – MPs voted this afternoon to support a Liberal Democrat bill that would see the UK join a customs union with our continental neighbours.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘Today was a historic victory for the Liberal Democrats – winning a vote in Parliament to finally end the economic nightmare of the Conservatives’ broken Brexit deal.’

All is not exactly as it may seem, though, as it’s vanishingly unlikely today’s vote will directly result in a new version of the hard-fought Brexit agreement.

Here’s what happened, and what it might mean.

What led up to today’s vote?

It will surprise no close watcher of British politics that the Lib Dems are no fans of Brexit.

You may remember the 2019 election, in which the Tories under Boris Johnson campaigned to ‘Get Brexit Done’ while Jo Swinson’s Lib Dems bluntly pledged to ‘Stop Brexit’.

Since last year’s elections, the Labour government has sought a much closer relationship with the European Union, securing a new trade deal earlier this year.

And while joining a customs union with the bloc is one of Sir Keir Starmer’s explicit ‘red lines’ in that new approach, his Deputy PM David Lammy suggested on a podcast last week that it would boost the British economy.

The Lib Dems smelled blood, and decided to take advantage by setting the customs union as the subject of MP Al Pinkerton’s ‘ten-minute rule’ motion.

This motion gives backbench MPs ten minutes to make their case for a bill to be introduced. It’s rare for these to become law, even when they’re supported by the House of Commons.

But they happen to end in a vote, which helpfully demonstrates for the record who backs the substance of the proposals.

In this case, 13 Labour backbenchers voted in support of Pinkerton’s bill – exposing a split among the governing party’s ranks.

They were among 100 in the ‘aye’ lobby, versus 100 in the ‘no’ lobby. MPs burst into laughter when the result was announced, with one shouting for a referendum.

Deputy Speaker Caroline Nokes, a Conservative, cast the deciding vote in favour ‘to allow further debate’.

Has this happened before?

Today’s drama was eerily reminiscent of a moment almost exactly a year ago, when the Lib Dems also unexpectedly won a ten-minute rule motion.

That time round, it was on the small matter of the UK’s voting system.

Again, the final result was unusually close, with 135 voting against and 137 voting for the introduction of a system of proportional representation.

Former party leader Tim Farron was among those in the chamber for the debate.

In a tweet, he wrote that while it was ‘unsurprising’ he had voted in favour of the motion: ‘In somewhat more surprising news, we appear to have won!!’

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