Theresa May understood to be delaying Brexit vote

Theresa May will make a statement to MPs this afternoon, amid reports that Tuesday’s vote on her Brexit deal is to be delayed.

It will be followed by statements by the Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, and the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, on Article 50.

There has been no official confirmation of the move from Downing Street.

Number 10 had been insisting the vote would go ahead, despite expectations that the government would lose it.

It follows a week where the government lost a series of votes over Brexit.

It comes as the European Court of Justice ruled that Brexit can be cancelled without the permission of the other 27 EU countries.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said the EU would not renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement.

She said: “We take note of the Court of Justice judgement today on the irrevocability of Article 50.

“We have an agreement on the table, which was endorsed by the European Council in its Article 50 format on 25 November.

“As President Juncker said, this deal is the best and only deal possible.

“We will not renegotiate – our position has therefore not changed.

“As far as we are concerned, the United Kingdon is leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019.”

Speaking before the news broke that the vote is to be delayed, Jonathan Reynolds – Stalybridge and Hyde MP – said: “My own view is it is a bad deal. I don’t think it guarantees or confirms any of our future arrangements with Europe.

“So we know what the terms of coming out are, but we haven’t used that negotiating position to get anything confirmed [about] what we really want the future relationship to be.

“The types of colleagues, of her own MPs, that I see now coming out against the deal, are usually fairly loyal people whose support she can count on.

“If she hasn’t got those people, I think that’s a very difficult position.

“If you saw what happened this week with the Government losing key votes again and again within Parliament, there’s a good chance the Government falls.”