MPs are preparing to vote for their preferred Brexit option, with the PM due to meet Tory backbenchers in an effort to win them over to her deal.
Some have suggested Theresa May must name the date she will step down to have any hope of winning MPs’ approval for her deal at the third attempt.
Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has hinted he may soon back the plan.
Having voted to seize control of Commons business, backbench MPs will vote on Brexit alternatives later.
The Speaker will select around half a dozen options, likely to range from cancelling Brexit to leaving the EU without a deal, with MPs marking on paper each option with a “yes” or “no”.
The process is likely to continue into next week. However, it is unclear whether MPs will be free to vote as they wish or will take orders from party leaders.
Former Health Minister Steve Brine, who resigned on Monday to back the move to force indicative votes, told BBC Newsnight more than a dozen others might quit government roles if they are denied a free vote.
“MPs should be free to vote as they see fit,” he said. “This is bigger than all of us, bigger than the parties; it’s country first.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Parliament is expected to formally back calls for Brexit to be cancelled in a vote later.
Mrs May continues to try to win MPs round to her deal, which has been heavily rejected twice. She is expected to address the backbench 1922 Committee ahead of Wednesday’s debate.
The PM has signalled she will try to bring her deal back to the Commons for a further vote later this week but only if she believes she can win.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists, whose 10 MPs prop up Mrs May’s minority government, urged Tory MPs to “stand firm” in their opposition unless there were “significant changes”.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Rees-Mogg – who is chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs – said “an awkward reality needs to be faced” and he was ready to back the deal so long as it won DUP support.
But ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the BBC there was “no point” supporting Mrs May’s deal “without any sign the UK is going to change its approach in phase two” of the negotiations. Otherwise he feared the country would be indefinitely tied to the EU’s rules.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the not-so-subtle subtext of Mr Johnson’s remarks was “if the PM promises to go soon, then she might get my vote”.
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Source: BBC