May gives ground on customs bill to win key vote
I would not have gone through all the work that I did to ensure that we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these bills.
LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May avoided defeat but lost another minister in a key parliamentary vote over Brexit after bowing to pressure from hardline eurosceptics in her ruling Conservative Party.
May agreed to two amendments to legislation detailing Britain’s future customs regime tabled by Jacob Rees-Mogg and other hardline Brexiteer MPs, that critics said stymie her own favoured plans, as she avoided a large-scale rebellion from her backbenchers.
But Guto Bebb, a junior minister in the defence department, resigned to vote against one of the changes — the latest in a string of departures from her embattled minority government.
“I’m happy to sit down and listen and hear concerns from my colleagues,” the prime minister told lawmakers ahead of the vote.
She insisted the amendments did not deviate from her Brexit plan formally unveiled last week following months of cabinet infighting.
“I would not have gone through all the work that I did to ensure that we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these bills,” May added.
The compromise was vehemently criticised by proEuropean MPs in her own party.
Anna Soubry, a vocal proponent of keeping close ties with the EU, told parliament: “One has to wonder now who’s in charge in this country?
“These are people who do not want a responsible Brexit,” she added of her hardliner colleagues.
The prime minister is struggling to win acceptance for her Brexit strategy from both pro-Brexit and pro-EU factions within her party, with persistent rumours that Tory MPs are planning to topple her.
In a sign of the strains, May will ask lawmakers to sign off Tuesday on bringing forward parliament’s six-week summer recess by five days to Thursday.
Opposition MP Angela Rayner branded the move ‘absolutely pathetic’ and accused the government of being ‘afraid of their own MPs causing mischief’.
May has been forced on the defensive following attacks on her
Theresa May, British Prime Minister
strategy from all sides — including US President Donald Trump, who said during a visit to Britain last week it could kill a potential USUK trade deal.
Brexiteer critics believe it keeps Britain too close to the EU, while pro-Europeans think it fails to protect Britain’s dominant services sector, among other gripes.
Two top pro-Brexit ministers, Boris Johnson and David Davis, quit in protest last week followed by a string of junior walkouts, including two more on Monday.
Monday’s amendments tabled to the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Bill, also known as the customs bill, were seen as a show of strength by hardliners amid the wrangling.
The first locks Britain into only collect tariffs on behalf of the EU if the bloc does the same for Britain — something it has said is unacceptable. A second mandates the country has a separate goods and services tax from Europe. — AFP