Minister breaks ranks on Brexit
A defence minister has become the first member of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to break ranks and publicly urge her to delay Brexit if no deal can be reached.
As Whitehall steps up preparations for a possible snap election, Tobias Ellwood is arguing that extending Article 50 – which began Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union – would be preferable to exiting the EU on March 29 without a deal.
Leaving with no agreement would ‘‘be an act of self-harm with profound economic, security and reputational, consequences for the UK at the very time threats are increasing and diversifying’’, he said yesterday.
If contingency planning for a no-deal Brexit became the government’s central mission, ‘‘it means we’ve failed to secure any parliamentary consensus and deliberately dismissed seeking additional time by extending Article 50’’, he said.
Ellwood spoke as May and her team scrambled to rescue her Brexit deal and her premiership.
May, who is resistant to calling a snap election, is understood to have been receptive to others’ ideas rather than forcing her own view. But a growing number of cabinet ministers believe the current turmoil will result in the country returning to the polls.
A senior official working for Julian
Smith, the chief whip, has contacted departments to ask which bills should rushed through before the dissolution of parliament in case an election is called.
May must return to the Commons tomorrow to update the House, outlining her thinking and laying a motion which MPs can then amend with competing plans. This is likely to trigger eight days of jockeying amongst MPs before the motion and the amendments are voted on.
Cabinet ministers and Labour MPs are pressing May to ‘‘open her chequebook’’ to encourage them to back her deal. A Labour source said they believed they could secure a funding boost for infrastructure projects.
May held talks yesterday with European leaders and her cabinet colleagues, but efforts to end the Brexit stalemate appeared deadlocked, with neither she nor Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn shifting from their entrenched positions.
May has been meeting with politicians from several parties this week to try to find a way forward after her EU divorce deal was overwhelmingly rejected by Parliament. She has been unwilling to move her ‘‘red lines’’ in the Brexit negotiations, which include taking Britain out of the bloc’s customs union.
Corbyn has refused to meet with May unless she rules out the possibility of Britain leaving the EU with no deal – a scenario that many believe would hurt the British economy. – The Times, AP