British MPs step up opposition to Brexit
LONDON — Talk of a Brexit deal getting closer has unleashed a fresh torrent of domestic opposition to the British prime minister’s plans, a reminder that any divorce may still be rejected in parliament.
Negotiations have been complicated throughout by the need to appease hardliners in Theresa May’s Conservative party and her Northern Irish allies, who are alert to any hint of compromise.
This weekend, a leading Brexit-backing Tory MP and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) signed a joint letter demanding no concessions on Northern Ireland’s status in the UK.
“If the government makes the historic mistake of prioritising placating the EU over establishing an independent and whole UK, then regrettably we must vote against the deal,” Steve Baker and Sammy Wilson wrote in the Sunday Telegraph. Opposition from the other side of the debate has also sharpened in recent days after pro-European junior transport minister Jo Johnson resigned, calling for a second referendum and saying the mooted deal with Brussels was a “terrible mistake”. He joined several other Conservatives who want to stay in the EU, in urging fellow MPs to vote down the deal when they can.
“The Commons resembles a cacophonous gathering of factions,” columnist Matthew d’Ancona wrote in The Guardian.
Over them “looms the clock doing its merciless work, draining the argument of reflection, caution and historical perspective.”
Britain faces the prospect of crashing out of the EU with no deal in place if there is no agreement signed and ratified by the time of the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29, 2019.
Meanwhile, members of May’s cabinet, which has publicly backed her since the dramatic resignations of two eurosceptic ministers in July, are also beginning to speak out. —