May warns peers not to "incentivise" Brussels to offer Britain bad Brexit deal

Tomorrow, peers are expected to vote on an amendment calling for Westminster to be given a meaningful vote on the withdrawal agreement ie that if MPs and peers did not like the final deal, then they could send the Prime Minister and her colleagues back to the negotiating table.

However, while Mrs May has promised Parliament a vote, she has been clear this can only take place on a "take it or leave it" basis, which would see the UK crash out of the EU without any deal if MPs rejected the package she had agreed with Brussels.

The PM believes she must maintain this position in order to secure her negotiating hand to convince EU negotiators and other member states she would be ready to walk away from the table if she did not like what was on offer.

But opposition MPs and peers argue Mrs May's position that "no deal is better than a bad deal" risks a sudden cliff-edge move onto World Trade Organisation tariffs, which would harm the UK economy.

Asked for the PM's message to peers preparing to vote on the European Union (Notification Of Withdrawal) Bill, Mrs May's spokesman explained: "She believes we should not commit to any process that would incentivise the EU to offer us a bad deal.

"If we are in a position where any deal negotiated by the Prime Minister could be rejected by MPs, that gives strength potentially to the other parties in this negotiation."

The spokesman stressed that the UK Government was approaching the Brexit talks in good faith and remained confident a deal that was good for Britain and the EU could be successfully brokered. But he added: “We should not commit to anything that will incentivise the EU to offer us a bad deal in the hope of stopping us leaving.”

Last week, peers overwhelmingly passed an amendment, which called for an immediate guarantee of rights for EU nationals already in the UK.

The bigger-than-expected Government defeat by 358 votes to 256 came as a result of Labour, Liberal Democrats and Crossbenchers joining forces with a handful of rebel Tories.

On Tuesday, it is expected that Mrs May will potentially suffer an even larger defeat on the issue of a meaningful vote. MPs are due to debate the amendments next week.

While the PM, thanks to the support of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists, has a working majority of 32, it would only take 17 rebel Tories in the Commons for her government to be defeated.

One former Conservative minister has warned that he is prepared to vote against the Government unless Mrs May gave Westminster a proper say on any Brexit deal.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour if he would back the expected amendment, London MP Bob Neill said: "I'd certainly be inclined to vote in that way unless the Government is able to come up with alternative assurances on the floor of the Commons which has the effect of saying, 'it needn't be on the face of the Bill but this is what will happen'."

He added: "If there is no deal, that means that we would potentially leave the EU straight on to World Trade Organisation terms and without any transitional arrangements. That would be deeply damaging for this country and Parliament should have the right to consider that."

Commons Leader David Lidington told the BBC: "Parliament will get the chance to vote on the deal.

"Any idea that the PM's freedom to negotiate is limited, any idea that if the EU 27 were to play hardball, that somehow that means that Parliament would...try to reverse the referendum verdicts and to set aside the views of the British people; that would almost guarantee that it would be much more difficult to get the sort of ambitious, mutually beneficial deal for us and for the EU 27 that we want," he added.