Number 10 delivers best day yet of comic capers, and it’s only Monday

Even by standards set in recent weeks, Westminster theatrics reached dizzying heights today. News leaked this morning that Theresa May would postpone tomorrow’s parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, and in a statement to the House of Commons at 3.30pm May confirmed the speculation.

This was after 100% assurances from Number 10 that the government would definitely hold the vote. These assurances turned out to be not worth the paper they are not written on. Cue farcical scenes.

It has become patently clear in recent weeks that the deal will be defeated, she said, and therefore delaying it is the best course of action. The issue of the Irish backstop remains the biggest sticking point, and May indicated she may seek to renegotiate that element of the deal with Brussels. Although she did also concede that renegotiation wasn’t really on the table. Clear head and a good plan from the Prime Minister, then.

Presciently, BBC political editor Laura Kuennsberg had pointed out around lunchtime that the process of delaying the vote may not be so simple. Parliament may have to vote on whether government can postpone tomorrow’s vote, Kuennsberg pointed out. Since, at least five Tory MPs indicated they would vote against postponing the vote. Still with me?

After May’s statement, in which she doubled down and admonished those trying to frustrate her deal, Speaker John Bercow spoke up. There are two possibilities regarding delaying the vote, he said. One is to hold a vote on whether the vote can be delayed. The other, most simply put, is to not do that, and delay the vote anyway. He “politely suggests” that allowing the House to have a say on whether the vote can be postponed “would be the right, and dare I say it, obvious course to take.”

Whether MPs will follow Bercow’s strongly worded advice remains to be seen. But parliamentary chicanery aside, it would be fitting with Theresa May’s recent parliamentary efforts to hold a vote on whether she could postpone a vote, and lose them both.

The problem that remains is a simple one, however. For the DUP (whose MPs prop up May’s minority government) to support her deal, the Irish backstop has to go. But, neither the EU nor Dublin will allow that to happen. Postponing the vote may stave off the inevitable, but without negotiating herself out of this rock and hard place, May’s deal will never make it through parliament.

But let’s just hold a vote on holding a vote and not think about that for a while.