Justice minister resigns from government to vote against Theresa May on Brexit

YouTube/drphillipleemp

LONDON - Justice minister Dr Phillip Lee has resigned from Theresa May's government just hours before a series of crunch votes on amendments to the prime minister's flagship Brexit legislation. 

Lee, who was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, has quit the front bench so he can vote against the government on the "meaningful vote" amendment.

He announced his decision on Twitter on Tuesday morning: 

Earlier this year, Lee was disciplined by Conservative MPs for describing the government's Brexit policy of being based on "dogma" in a thread of Tweets.

He was a passionate campaigner for Britain to remain the European Union and now is expected to use his freedom on the backbenches to vote against the government on the meaningful vote amendment. 

The meaningful vote amendment  - amendment 48,19 -is where the government is most likely to be defeated in votes on up 15 amendments taking place today and on Wednesday. 

In practice, the amendment would give MPs and Lords the power to decide what happens should they decide to reject the Brexit deal May hopes to bring back from Brussels later this year. This means MPs and Lords could tell May to go back to negotiating table and get something better, for example. As things stand, Parliament does not have this power, meaning voting against the deal could lead to Britain crashing out with no deal at all.

More follows...

Our Brexit Insider Facebook group is the best place for up-to-date news and analysis about Britain's departure from the EU, direct from Business Insider's political reporters. Join here.