LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Conservative government would accept parliament’s choosing a so-called ‘soft’ Brexit after failing to secure backing for Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal, Brexit minister Stephen Barclay said on Wednesday.

“You are then left with an unpalatable choice, in my view, but a choice nonetheless between either not having Brexit (…)or you end up with what is referred to as a softer Brexit,” Stephen Barclay told a committee of lawmakers on Brexit, when asked on the way forward.

“Ultimately, if that is where the numbers of the House of Commons go, then the government would, in order to bring this to a resolution in the national interest, would accept what the house voted for,” he said.

(Reporting by Elisabeth O’Leary; editing by Michael Holden)