Tuesday 22 January 2019 11:38 am | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 3:16 am

Theresa May feels the heat as MPs table plans to alter Brexit process

Former attorney general and Tory rebel Dominic Grieve has tabled his motion to allow MPs time to debate various Brexit options in the run-up to the UK's exit from the EU.

Grieve was originally planning to table a motion that would have allowed 300 MPs from the five parties to be debated and voted on by the Commons for one day, taking control of the agenda away from the government.

Grieve's motion would now allow backbenchers to table different Brexit motions to debate six days before the UK leaves the EU on 12 and 26 February and 5, 12, 19 and 26 March 2019. The UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March.

The debate window could allow MPs to discuss various Brexit options such as remaining in the customs union – something the Labour party favours – a second referendum or the Norway model.

Labour today said MPs should be able to vote on whether to hold a second referendum in an amendment it submitted after May's Brexit Plan B update, in which she caused widespread dismay by revealing few changes to the deal that was resolutely rejected by MPs last week.

The amendment says MPs should be asked to consider a second poll but refrains from saying the party will officially back a referendum if a vote were to take place.

Fellow Tory MP Nick Boles and Labour MP Yvette Cooper are also piling the pressure on May to seek an extension of article 50, the mechanism that allows the UK to leave the bloc, unless she comes back with a deal that can win parliament's backing by 26 February.

Labour MPs Rachel Reeves and Hilary Benn will also table their own amendments. The Reeves amendment is aimed at preventing a no-deal by also requiring the Prime Minister to extend article 50 while Benn wants MPs to have non-binding or indicative votes or four options, including reconsidering the Prime Minister's deal, leaving with no deal, opening negotiations with the EU and holding a public vote or second referendum.

On Monday Theresa May caused widespread dismay when she updated the Commons on her Brexit plan B – which turned out to be that she was seeking to find changes to the backstop and that a £65 fee for EU citizens applying for the right to remain in the UK would be scrapped.

May is also facing pressure from inside her own cabinet, with work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd warning that up to 40 members of government will resign next week if they are denied a free vote on plans that would allow article 50 to be extended, according to the Times.