MAY: I WON’T DELAY BREXIT VOTE
THERESA May yesterday rejected pleas by jittery top Tories to delay the crunch vote on her Brexit deal.
A string of ministers and backbenchers pressed the Prime Minister to postpone Tuesday’s so-called “meaningful vote” in Parliament in the face of a mass rebellion.
But Mrs May and her allies insisted the vote would go ahead, with a Downing Street spokeswoman saying it “is happening”.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, urged the Prime Minister to put off the vote until the party row over the so-called Northern Ireland backstop could be resolved.
He said: “I think the most important thing is to have clarity about how we might remove ourselves from a backstop if we were to enter into one in the future.
“It’s having the answer to that question of substance that is most important, not the timing, so if that question can be answered in the course of the next few days, then all well and good.
“If it can’t, then I certainly would welcome the vote being deferred until we can answer that question.”
Several Cabinet ministers, including Philip Hammond, Michael Gove, Amber Rudd, Andrea Leadsom and Liam Fox, were seen going into 10 Downing Street yesterday.
Other sources said pro-Brussels ministers including Mr Hammond, Justice Secretary David Gauke and Business Secretary Greg Clark told Mrs May they could not support quitting the EU without a deal.
Earlier yesterday, Mrs May confirmed she had been discussing a possible veto for MPs before the UK could enter the backstop – a mechanism designed to prevent a postBrexit “hard” border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
She admitted the backstop, which critics say could keep the UK tied to EU customs arrangements forever,
had become the key stumbling block in her bid to win Tory support.
Mrs May told BBC Radio’s 4 Today programme: “People have a concern of the backstop, that we could be in it indefinitely.
“But in the backstop we have no financial obligations, we have no free movement, we have very light, level playing field, rules with the EU.
“In the implementation period, we still have to negotiate the terms, but there will be concerns about the fact that they would require – I’m sure
they would require – some more money to be paid, for example.
“So there would be arguments on different sides.”
Chancellor Mr Hammond told the Commons Mrs May’s deal was the only offer on the table.
And he also risked further angering Eurosceptics by saying leaving the EU without a deal would be “too awful to contemplate”.
Mr Hammond told MPs: “The idea that there’s an option of renegotiating at the 11th hour is simply a delusion.
“We need to be honest with ourselves – the alternatives to this deal are no deal or no Brexit. Either will leave us a fractured society and a divided nation.”
But Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “If a bad Brexit is forced upon our country and the jobs and economy are not protected, many of our people who have suffered from eight years of austerity will suffer even more.”
In another sign of the rifts across the political divide, Lib Dem MP Stephen Lloyd yesterday resigned the party whip to allow him to back the Government on Tuesday.
The Eastbourne MP has refused to support his party’s call for a second EU referendum.