Brexit: Ex-Labour MP Fiona Onasanya helps Remainer rebels to victory | Daily Mail Online

Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya, pictured at a Tribunal yesterday, cast the deciding Commons vote that ‘rammed through’ a Bill on stopping No Deal and delaying Brexit

A Bill to delay Brexit and take No Deal off the table was ‘rammed through’ the Commons by one vote - and only passed after it was backed by disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya, it was revealed today.

The 35-year-old former Labour MP still represents Peterborough despite being sentenced to three months’ jail in January for perverting the course of justice after repeatedly lying to police about a speeding offence. 

She was released early from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, having served just 28 days and agreed to a curfew and an electronic tag, which allowed her to pass the crucial Brexit vote last night.

Onasanya faces a  by-election if at least 10 per cent of registered voters in the solicitor’s Peterborough constituency - about 7,000 - sign the petition by May 1.

Hours before last night's Commons vote she appeared at an employment tribunal where she is accused of discriminating against a disabled employee who was told to use the male toilet because she couldn’t climb the stairs.

Last night in Parliament, in an unusual step, Speaker John Bercow allowed Sir Oliver Letwin and Yvette Cooper to fast-track legislation through the Commons in only one day.

Their Bill, which is expected to be debated in the Lords today, compels Theresa May to ask Brussels for an extension to negotiations, in effect blocking No Deal. 

It was approved by 313 to 312.

14 Tory MPs backed the Bill, all Remainers, including former Chancellor Ken Clarke, and Dominic Grieve QC. Six Tories abstained. Of the 20 rebels 17 were former ministers. 

14 Tories voted for the Bill to pass through the Commons last night

These six Tories abstained. If they had voted against the Bill would have failed

Usually legislation takes weeks or months to go through the Commons but MPs tore up the rules to ensure it passed ahead of next week’s Brexit deadline.

If no delay is secured, the UK will leave without a deal next Thursday night. The Bill now goes to the Lords today where it will face further obstacles - including attempts by Eurosceptic Peers to delay its progress.

European Research Group vice chairman Mark Francois said it was a ‘constitutional outrage’ that the Bill had been ‘rammed through’ in just four hours. He yelled:‘The public won't be impressed by this. Forgive them Father for they know not what they do’.

Eurosceptic Tory MP Peter Bone called on the Speaker to end the ‘farce’ of passing a Bill in such a short period.

Tory MP Charles Walker, the chairman of the Procedure Committee, also complained the Bill had been fast tracked.

If the government tried to push through legislation in such a way the House would be ‘rightly, deeply irritated’, he argued.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who drew up the Bill, said the vote showed the House opposed a ‘chaotic and damaging no deal’.

She said the House would support the Prime Minister to ‘ensure we don’t end up with no deal on April 12’.

But Speaker Bercow said there was ‘nothing disorderly’ about the procedure.

Eurosceptic Tory MP Steve Baker suggested the Bill could be held up in the House of Lords. He said he was sure Peers would be examined for ‘as long as they think necessary’.

A cross-party manoeuvre hatched by Tory Sir Oliver Letwin and Labour's Yvette Cooper to force a new law through the Commons succeeded after it was approved by 313 to 312 (pictured)

DUP Emma Little-Pengelly of Speaker John Bercow as he cast his deciding vote when MPs delivered a first tie in a Commons vote since 1993 as a proposal to allow a third round of indicative votes on Brexit alternatives was rejected 

The rebels insisted on changing the law even though the Prime Minister had already pledged to delay the country’s departure from the EU beyond next Friday – the day Britain is currently due to leave.

Opponents warned last night that a dangerous precedent would be set by rushing the Bill through all its Commons stages in one day. The backbenchers tabled the legislation after wresting control of the parliamentary timetable from ministers.

Sir Bill Cash, Tory chairman of the European scrutiny committee, said the move to pass the Bill in a day was ‘reprehensible’.

‘It is a constitutional revolution and I also believe that it is a very, very undesirable precedent,’ he added. ‘It is almost an unbelievable shambles this Bill and the reality is there is no excuse for it.’

Charles Walker, Tory chairman of the procedure committee, said: ‘I think we will regret what we are doing today – it does worry me. I fear that one day soon – I hope it will not be the case – we will be debating an expropriation of assets Bill in six hours. We would regret that bitterly.’

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘If we legislate in haste, we will repent at leisure, and we do nothing in this place but repent at leisure again and again.

‘We talk about sweeping away precedents because they are archaic and were around for 200 years or whatever, and that everything modern must be brilliant. I do not agree with that.

‘Sometimes history teaches endless lessons. This place is at its best when it is arguing and debating, and taking its time to do so.’ Conservative MP Nadine Dorries said Parliament would ‘rue the day’ if it backed the legislation.

MPs passed the Bill at its second reading yesterday by 315 votes to 310. They were expected to give their final backing in a further set of votes late last night.

Earlier, there were extraordinary scenes as one of the Brexit votes resulted in a tie – the first time that has happened in almost 40 years. MPs voted 310 in favour and 310 against a plan put forward by Labour MP Hilary Benn to hold a third round of indicative votes next week on alternatives to the Prime Minister’s deal, meaning Mr Bercow was given the deciding vote.

The Speaker said his casting vote, in line with precedent, was with the Noes, so the amendment was defeated by 311 to 310. This means MPs will no longer have control of the Commons order paper.

The last time there was thought to have been a tied vote was in July 1993 when MPs voted 317 for and 317 against an amendment relating to the Maastricht Treaty. The Speaker at the time, Betty Boothroyd, was given a casting vote, but the next day it was found there had been a counting error and the result had not actually been a tie.

Before that, in January 1980, MPs were split 201 in favour and 201 against a motion on bringing TV cameras into the Commons.

n MPs, campaigners and activists must tone down their rhetoric on Brexit or they could incite disorder, the leader of the National Police Chiefs Council suggested yesterday.

Martin Hewitt spoke out as it was revealed that police are preparing to mobilise more than 10,000 officers in the event of riots and looting after Brexit.

Mr Hewitt, a Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, said: ‘We are in an incredibly febrile atmosphere. There is a lot of angry talk… across social media.’

He used his first speech as chairman of the NPCC to caution all groups, including MPs and public figures, to ‘use moderation’.

‘If you are in a position where you know you are going to be listened to, you need to think very carefully about the language you are using so that it does not end up with consequences that were not intended.’

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