Tories 'take advantage of sick and elderly Labour MPs' in desperate bid to win Brexit vote
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Loading... - Anja Lovec
- 20 Jun 2021
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Tory government whips are reportedly taking advantage of sick and elderly MPs in a desperate bid to win today’s crucial Brexit vote.
Convention usually allows MPs who are on the Parlaimentary estate, but are too sick or elderly to physically walk through the voting lobbies to still have their votes counted.
In practice this means even if an MP is in the Commons car park in an Ambulance, they can still vote.
But Government whips are understood to have refused to accept this procedure, and are insisting on even infirm MPs physically passing through the lobbies in order to have their vote counted.
MPs will vote tonight on two similar technical definitions of Theresa May's promise to give Parliament a "meaningful vote" on the Brexit deal - one proposed by the government, and one proposed by a pro-EU member of May's Conservative Party, Dominic Grieve.
Parliament will decide which version to approve later on Wednesday in what is expected to be a very tight vote.
The vote would be politically damaging for May to lose, and could make a 'no deal' Brexit less likely.
It’s understood two Labour MPs were planning to have their votes ‘nodded through’ using this convention.
A Labour spokesman said "As I understand it there has been a refusal to nod through people who are not in a state to vote in the normal way and that's obviously unacceptable."
A Labour MP told the Daily Mirror the tactic was "the lowest of the low" and "quite simply outrageous".
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said: “In all my years in Parliament - even in the 1970s - I have NEVER seen this. This is absolutely bloody shameful.
“I trust Labour MPs will be disgusted by these desperate and heartless Tory tactics, vote against the Government and back the meaningful vote.”
