Theresa May’s Brexit deal is accidentally revived

As an illustration of how chaotic things are in Parliament right now, the Commons has just accidentally revived Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

An administrative problem meant the amendment tabled by Stephen Kinnock and others to bring the deal back to the Commons, in order to prevent a no-deal exit, went through. The Tories didn’t put in tellers to count the votes, which means the division was cancelled.

There is, though, a chance that the government whips may have done this deliberately in order to make the bill itself toxic to MPs and therefore try to kill it off. In which case they are having to rely on chaos to get their way. Those behind the bill though say the amendment is merely an irritant that doesn’t change the bill’s substance.