That’s how one political talking head described the situation.
MPs have inflicted two more defeats on Theresa May, rejecting the idea of Britain leaving the EU without a deal and clearing the way for Brexit to be delayed.After the prime minister’s deal was heavily voted down for a second time on Tuesday, she announced a government motion ruling out a no-deal Brexit on 29 March – overturning her longstanding policy of refusing to rule it out. May promised MPs a free vote, but the motion was carefully worded, with the final sentence stating that, “leaving without a deal remains the default in UK and EU law unless this house and the EU ratify an agreement”. However, MPs voted by 312 to 308 to support a backbench amendment which struck out that last phrase so as to rule out a no-deal exit altogether.
In chaotic scenes, the government then rescinded its promise of a free vote; and whipped its MPs to vote against the amended motion. Several Tory MPs, including cabinet ministers who have warned about the risks of a no-deal Brexit abstained or otherwise defied the whip, and the government lost the vote, by 321 votes to 278. The prime minister responded with a defiant statement, insisting a no-deal Brexit could only be avoided by agreeing a deal, or cancelling Brexit.
So repeat after me. The government tried to force its own MPs to vote against the government’s own motion, after it was amended to rule out any prospect of no-deal Brexit – and failed. The scuttlebutt from the moderate Tories is a choice between a bad Brexit deal or no Brexit at all – something that they really want to avoid. The Brextremists want to set everything ablaze and fiddle.
The vote does not definitively preclude a no-deal Brexit – MPs must still agree a deal, or extend or revoke article 50 in order to do that – but it underlined both the strength of feeling at Westminster and the government’s loss of control. In the aftermath of the vote, Brussels warned that the Commons vote blocking a no-deal Brexit was meaningless. A senior EU negotiator described it as “the Titanic voting for the iceberg to get out of the way”.
Quoted text: The Guardian