Ministers will press on with May’s Brexit deal, says Barclay

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has signalled that ministers will continue to press on with Theresa May’s Brexit deal despite the Commons Speaker’s bombshell intervention.

John Bercow provoked uproar at Westminster on Monday when he ruled that the Government could not bring the Prime Minister’s deal back for a third “meaningful vote” unless there were substantial changes.

Mr Barclay said that, while the Cabinet would give “serious consideration” to his ruling, Mrs May’s plan remained “the only deal on the table”.

“What we need to do is secure the deal,” he told Sky News.

“This is the only deal on the table. The EU is clear it is the only deal on the table. Business need the certainty of this deal and it is time that Parliament comes together and gets behind it.”

Mr Barclay acknowledged that the ruling made it “more unlikely” that there would be an attempt to get the deal through the Commons before Mrs May attends the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

However, he said the Speaker had made clear in earlier rulings that the Commons should not necessarily be bound by precedent.

“What the Speaker has said in his ruling is there needs to be something that is different. You can have the same motion but where the circumstances have changed,” he said.

“So we need to look at the details of the ruling, we need to consider that in the terms of earlier rulings that don’t particularly align with yesterday’s.

“The fact a number of Members of Parliament have said that they will change their votes points to the fact that there are things that are different.”