May wins the day after Brexit plot fizzles out
... but DUP pile on pressure by abstaining in crucial budget votes
THE plot to topple Theresa May lost momentum last night amid infighting and splits among the Tory party Brexiteers.
However, the British prime minister still faced a backlash from the DUP which showed its anger over the Brexit draft deal by abstaining from crunch votes on the budget.
Senior Eurosceptics had claimed yesterday would be the ‘moment of truth’ when they would secure the 48 names needed to force a vote of no confidence in Mrs May.
But in a humiliating development just one more MP went public, while two others named as plotters suggested they might not have written letters, taking the confirmed number of rebels down by one to 24. The plotters also faced a growing backlash from Tory moderates who fear bringing down Mrs May could wreck Brexit or usher in a Labour government.
‘Plummy-toned old Etonians’
Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said those seeking to remove her risked ‘the most appalling chaos that could be immensely damaging to our national reputation, but also destabilising and potentially stop us getting through to the other side of Brexit’.
And in a comment apparently aimed at plot leader Jacob ReesMogg and Boris Johnson, former minister Nick Boles said: ‘Do my colleagues not understand how normal people react when they see a group of middle-aged men, led by two plummy-toned Old Etonians, trying to bully a conscientious and determined woman out of her job?’
Failure to hit the 48 target led to recriminations last night the European Research Group (ERG) behind the plot.
There was anger that a number of senior Brexiteers – including Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson, Priti Patel and Bernard Jenkin – have not publicly backed the plot despite denouncing Mrs May’s deal. One MP who had submitted a letter said: ‘Where are these great titans of Brexit? The answer is, they’ve bottled it.’
Plans for five Eurosceptic cabinet ministers to issue an ultimatum to Mrs May over her deal this week also fizzled out, amid divisions over tactics.
Mr Rees-Mogg, the ERG’s chairman, and Steve Baker, the former chairman, published their letters of no confidence on Thursday and urged others to follow suit.
And yesterday morning Simon Clarke, another prominent ERG member, declared the target was about to be reached. He said: ‘I think the moment of truth is upon us.’ But former minister David Jones and backbencher Marcus Fysh – said to have written letters – refused to confirm this yesterday, while ERG members Edward Leigh, Desmond Swayne, Michael Fabricant and Jack Loprest say it is the wrong time to submit a letter.
However, the DUP stance will put the British government on notice that it is edging closer to ripping up the confidence and supply agreement that allows the Tory party to govern.
Its ten MPs prop up Mrs May’s minority administration through a formal deal that obliges them to vote for the budget, the Queen’s Speech and Brexit legislation. But amid increasing rancour after Downing Street unveiled the withdrawal agreement setting out the terms of Britain leaving the EU, co-operation between the parties has come under threat.
The DUP said there is ‘serious trouble’ with the deal, which might leave the North on a different regulatory footing to Britain, one of DUP leader Arlene Foster’s ‘blood red lines’.
A source warned the BBC: ‘Tory MPs need to realise that their jobs, their majorities, their careers depend on a good working relationship with the DUP, and May doesn’t appear to be listening.’ While the government won the votes on the Finance Bill, the DUP’s failure to support it in the first two were a blow to Mrs May’s authority.
Meanwhile, she has insisted Britain will be fully out of the EU before the next general election amid claims that Brexit could be delayed until the end of 2022.
And business leaders in the UK backed Mrs May, with Confederation of British Industry chief Carolyn Fairbairn warning plotters in the ‘narrow world of Westminster’ were indulging in a ‘high-stakes game of risk where the outcome could be an accidental no-deal’.