Theresa May is likely to lose a key Commons vote that would force her to abandon a pledge to pull Britain out of a customs union with Europe. Ten rebel Conservative MPs have signed an amendment to the government’s customs bill that would make securing a customs union with the EU after Brexit its “objective”. Labour, which supports the amendment, believes that it can count on all but two or three of its Brexit-supporting MPs to vote against the government on the issue. Even with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party and three Labour rebels Mrs May has a majority of only 16 and so would be unable to defeat the amendment if eight of the Tory rebels voted against her. The MPs’ decision…

Source: The Times April 17, 2018 23:01 UTC