Government wins European Arrest Warrant ‘vote’

So Labour lost its vote delaying the vote on the European Arrest Warrant that wasn’t technically a vote on that measure anyway. The first vote, that the question not be put today so that Parliament could have a full debate and vote another day, was lost, with 272 MPs voting ‘no’ with the government and 229 voting with Labour. There had been a big debate on the Tory backbenches about the best tactic, with MPs angry about the government’s behaviour split over whether to vote with Labour or abstain. This meant that Labour lost the vote. Yvette Cooper then confirmed that her party would support the government on the measures, so the motion that Speaker Bercow says is not on the European Arrest Warrant and Theresa May says is the Commons expressing its view on the European Arrest Warrant passed 464 to 38. Given most Tories with their ears to the ground had, before the weekend, expected 30 rebels, perhaps a few more changed their minds at the last minute. But this is still a very small rebellion after such a furious day in the Commons. If the government really could have included the arrest warrant in the motion or held a separate vote on the warrant, then it has made a spectacular mistake by refusing to do either out of the mistaken belief that not mentioning the warrant would keep the revolt small. The revolt was already going to be small, and would have ended up as a small story. Now it is a big story about government tricks, confusion and disorder. Today has seen one of the best Commons performances that Yvette Cooper has given as Shadow Home Secretary. She managed to highlight the absence of the arrest warrant before the vote and exploited Speaker Bercow’s statement to the full. Then she showed cunning by introducing the motion that the question on the order paper asking MPs to vote on the measures was delayed. But the main catalyst was Speaker Bercow, who gave the statement saying this was not a vote on the warrant that so enraged Tory MPs. Conservative ministers are furious with Bercow now. The question is now why on earth did David Cameron promise a vote on the warrant if it was not procedurally possible to hold a vote? And if it was possible, who was the bright spark who thought it better not to hold the vote? Ukip has already sent out a press release from Nigel Farage and Douglas Carswell accusing the government of treating democracy with ‘contempt’. Carswell added:

‘David Cameron promised a vote on this issue in the Commons. His Whips tried to play it clever and fix procedure. It has backfired spectacularly.’

Ukip could develop a line here, which is that Cameron promised the British public a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty which didn’t happen, and then promised the Commons a vote on the European Arrest Warrant, which also didn’t happen. Why, Ukip could argue, would you trust the Tories to give a referendum in 2017?