Brexit: Majority of Welsh MPs to vote down EU deal

Theresa May's withdrawal agreement has divided her party

A large majority of Wales' 40 MPs are expected to reject Theresa May's Brexit deal during a crunch vote in the House of Commons.

Labour, Plaid Cymru and two Welsh Conservative MPs are set to vote down the deal on Tuesday evening, while it is thought six Welsh Tories will back the prime minister.

One Brexiteer supporting the deal said he is "resigned" to it not passing.

The vote had been delayed from December.

With Labour's Paul Flynn not attending Parliament for a number of months due to illness, as many as 33 Welsh MPs could vote down the deal, with only six supporting it.

Mrs May's deal on the UK's withdrawal agreement with the European Union has divided the Conservatives, and is opposed by the Democratic Unionist Party which had been backing her government.

The deal's backstop - an insurance policy to avoid any return to physical Northern Ireland border checks - is among the problems some Brexiteers cite.

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As well as Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns, Tory MPs Stephen Crabb and Simon Hart are expected to support the deal in the vote.

Brexit-backing Tory MPs Chris Davies, Glyn Davies and David Davies are thought to be joining them, but Brexit campaigner David Jones has said he would oppose the deal.

Labour parliamentarians who form 28 of Wales' 40 MPs are expected to vote down the deal, as is pro-EU former Tory government minister Guto Bebb.

They will be joined by Plaid Cymru's four members of Parliament.

In a Conservative Home article Aberconwy's Mr Bebb said: "We have an impasse in Parliament, and will soon have a full blown national crisis, if members of Parliament, particularly on the Conservative side, do not provide the pragmatic, democratic solution of another referendum."

David Davies said he is resigned "to the fact that clearly it is not going to go through"

Wales voted to leave the European Union in the Brexit vote in 2016.

Jo Stevens, Labour MP for Cardiff Central, said Mrs May's deal "will make my constituents and the country worse off".

She claimed her constituency had the highest remain vote in Wales. "I know the overwhelming majority of my constituents want me to reject her deal," she added.

In an article published last week on Get Britain Out David Jones, Clwyd West MP, said it is a "thoroughly bad deal and the Commons will be right to say no to it".

"We would remain subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, the institution in which EU sovereignty resides. Northern Ireland, in breach of the Act of Union of 1801, would be treated separately from the rest of the country, potentially becoming, in effect, a province of the EU," he argued.

David Davies, Monmouth MP, who also campaigned for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, said: "I don't believe anybody knows what will happen if this deal gets voted down."

He said the deal "is the only way I can see that we will be out of the EU, clearly out, definitely out, with a trade arrangement by the end of March".

But he added: "I've got to be resigned to the fact that clearly it is not going to go through."

'More division' warning

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said the deal "delivers on the referendum".

"It allows the UK to take back control of its money, borders and laws while protecting jobs and security and providing certainty as we leave the EU," he said.

"Voting against the deal will lead to more division, more uncertainty and a failure to deliver on the decision of the British people."

Welsh Government counsel general Jeremy Miles, who speaks for ministers on Brexit, said the government does not want MPs to vote for the prime minister's deal.

"We say that deal is bad for the UK and bad for Wales," he said.

Speaking to journalists later on Tuesday, he said the prime minister should seek to delay Britain's EU departure beyond 29 March and re-negotiate with Brussels if her deal is rejected.

Plaid Cymru's Liz Saville Roberts said the Westminster government knows the deal "will leave people worse off and with fewer opportunities. Plaid Cymru will never vote to make our country or constituents poorer".

On Monday Gareth Johnson, who is the Welsh whip for the Conservative party but is an MP for Dartford, became the latest member of the government to quit his job over the deal, saying it would be "detrimental to our nation's interests".