SirRattleBalls
Banned
MP's cast their votes to trigger article 50 this evening, and boy is Labour in for a blood bath. 144 MPs voted against the motion, many of them being from the Labour party (20% of Labour). This went against Jeremy's Corbyn's 3 line whip.
BBC Link
Guardian Live Update
MPs have voted by a majority of 384 to allow Prime Minister Theresa May to get Brexit negotiations under way.
They backed the government's European Union Bill, supported by the Labour leadership, by 498 votes to 114.
But the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats opposed the bill, while 47 Labour MPs and Tory ex-chancellor Ken Clarke rebelled.
The bill now faces further scrutiny in the Commons and the House of Lords before it can become law.
The prime minister has set a deadline of 31 March for invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, getting official talks with the EU started. The bill returns to the Commons next week.
BBC Link
Full details of the Labour rebellion
Here are the key figures that show the size of the Labour rebellion tonight.
- 47 Labour MPs defied the whip and voted against the article 50 bill on second reading. That's 20% of the parliamentary party.
- Three members of the shadow cabinet resigned so that the could vote against the bill. They are: Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, Rachael Maskell, the shadow environment secretary, and Dawn Butler, shadow minister for BME communities.
- Four frontbenchers resigned so they could vote against the bill. They are the three shadow cabinet ministers and Tulip Siddiq, who was shadow early years minister.
- Another 10 shadow ministers voted against the bill but so far have not resigned. The nine shadow ministers are: Kevin Brennan (culture), Ruth Cadbury (housing), Alan Whitehead (energy), Rupa Huq (crime prevention), Stephen Pound (Northern Ireland), Andy Slaughter (housing), Catherine West (Foreign Office), Daneil Zeichner (transport), Rosena Allin-Khan (culture) and Lyn Brown (policing).
- And three whips also voted against bull but have so far not resigned. They are Thangam Debonnaire, Vicky Foxcroft and Jeff Smith.
[*]A total of 17 Labour frontbenchers (shadow ministers and whips) either resigned over the vote or defied the whip.
Guardian Live Update