Sadiq Khan: ‘The government’s meaningful vote is a scam’

Speaking during a telephone debate on LBC he gave his predictions for what happens next with Brexit.

He said: ‘I think Theresa May will still be PM over the course of the next few weeks or months. She will come back with a bad Brexit deal and portray it as better than the alternative of a no-deal. I think some MPs will buy that spin, I’m hoping saner MPs will look at the merits of the bad Brexit deal and reject that, and in an ideal world have a vote of no confidence and a general election.’

Echoing many senior Labour politicians he said he realised a general election was unlikely, but hoped that failing that a People’s Vote would be put on the table.

‘I’m hoping Parliament votes for the public to have a say on the deal the prime minister has done with the option to stay in the European Union. That would require an amendment to be put down from parliamentarians.’

Khan said that depends on the speaker rejecting the government’s ‘scam’ of a meaningful vote.

‘What this depends on is whether parliamentarians are successful in persuading the speaker to allow an amendment to the ‘meaningful vote’. You see the scam the government is trying to pull to not allow amendments on the vote that MPs would take – meaning they have a choice of accepting or rejecting the deal, and the fall back being ‘no deal’.’

He added: ‘The key thing is for the speaker to be brave and to allow parliamentarians to move amendments.’

Concerns about the ‘meaningful vote’ have been raised by all sides of the house – Conservative MP Anna Soubry said voters would ‘not forgive’ the government if it does not offer a true meaningful vote.