It was announced yesterday that the final deal to be agreed by the UK government on the terms of Brexit will be subject to a binding Parliamentary vote.

The news from David Davis (pictured) has been recognised as a major concession to Labour as well as backbench Tory MPs but could come back to bite when the deadline for a deal approaches in 2019.

The pledge essentially represents political short-termism as while it may prove enough to secure votes for the Withdrawal Bill that is currently going through Parliament, it paves the way for a potential crisis in 2019 that could leave Britain on a precipice.

The most effective way to envisage the problems is to imagine if MPs reject the Bill. Normally if this happens the government is in a position to make tweaks and push it through on a second or third attempt. This solution will not be available here as there will already be a deal in place that has been finalised with the European Union by this point. If the vote is truly binding then the UK will all of a sudden be on the verge of leaving without any deal whatsoever and no substantial fallback plan in place.

The other unknown factor that makes this promise into more of a gamble is that we don’t know what the state of the government will be like in 2019. As cabinet ministers seem to be resigning at a rate of one a week there are serious questions being asked about Theresa May’s premiership. Even if we do not have an election before another one is due in 2022 this still does not tell us who will be the prime minister when a Brexit deal is finalised in 2019 and, more importantly, it says nothing about how rebellious backbench MPs will be on both sides of the aisle by that point.

In a best case scenario David Davis will work closely with Parliament throughout the negotiations and continue to foster good relationships with a range of MPs. Theoretically this would make the passage of such a Bill in 2019 more of a rubber stamp but, with the way that things are going in both Westminster and Brussels, this idea seems fanciful right now.

Arguably Davis should be praised for ensuring Parliamentary sovereignty is at the heart of this process but in truth this is a political move that adds a huge element of risk and uncertainty into a set of negotiations that are already marred by their own risk and uncertainty.