YOU DON’T WANT TO DELIVER BREXIT
Furious Andrea Leadsom blasts ‘Remainer Cabinet’ for blocking EU exit...1,000 days after we voted to leave
CABINET ministers were accused of giving up on Brexit yesterday as the political chaos over our EU departure boiled over in Downing Street.
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom suggested the country was being run by a “Remainer Cabinet” in a furious tirade in front of Theresa May. Ms Leadsom, below, told fellow Tory frontbenchers: “This used to be the Cabinet that would deliver Brexit and now, from what I’m hearing, it’s not.” The outburst came almost 1,000 days after the UK voted to leave the EU. Ms Leadsom and pro-Brexit ministers Chris Grayling and Liam Fox have also said the
Government should be ready to withdraw the country from the EU at the end of June without a deal rather than accepting a lengthy delay.
Furious ministers exchanged barbs over the Brexit deadlock in a 90-minute Cabinet row as the Prime Minister prepared to write to European Council president Donald Tusk to formally request a delay in the UK’s departure from the bloc, currently scheduled for next week.
Whitehall insiders last night said Mrs May was preparing for another Commons “meaningful vote” on her Brexit deal on March 28, just one day before the country is scheduled to leave the EU.
At a dramatic and ill-tempered Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mrs May admitted that the Government had been plunged into “crisis” and Parliament turned into a “laughing stock”.
It follows Commons Speaker John Bercow’s ruling that her Withdrawal Agreement cannot be put before MPs again without substantial changes after being rejected twice by the Commons in previous “meaningful votes”.
She told the meeting she had warned MPs that rejecting her deal would lead to a crisis, adding that events this week had shown “that situation has come to pass”. According to Cabinet sources, Mrs May told her ministers: “The speaker used to say it was Parliament versus the Government, now it’s Parliament versus the people.
“If we don’t deliver Brexit, people will never forgive us. Parliament is a laughing stock.”
Other ministers were said to have warned Mrs May that the decision on the length of the delay was ultimately a matter for the EU.
One angry cabinet source said: “It’s not up to us, it’s up to them, and who knows what conditions they’ll attach.”
Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the meeting that botching Brexit could lead to the Tories being hammered at the next general election.
She warned her colleagues they could face “a barren land ruled by Jeremy Corbyn with all of us here in a gulag”.
Downing Street last night insisted the Prime Minister was still “determined” to try everything possible to agree a deal and limit the Brexit delay.
“The public want us to get on with it, that is very clear,” Mrs May’s spokesman said.
“Everybody’s focus should be on working for the UK to leave with a deal and that is what the Prime Minister is determined to deliver.”
The spokesman added: “There is not legislative time for us to leave with a deal on March 29.
“She is absolutely determined to find a way to deliver on the verdict of the British people as quickly as possible. She wanted to leave on March 29. That has not proved possible.” Last night, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned that the EU could reject the request for a Brexit delay unless the Prime Minister sets out a fresh plan for the UK’s future.
Ahead of tomorrow’s Brussels showdown over the Brexit crisis, Mr Barnier insisted she must set out clear reasons for extending the bloc’s Article 50 withdrawal process if she
opts for a long delay. Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Mr Barnier said the EU will assess “the reason and the usefulness” of any request from the Prime Minister for a delay.
He added: “The EU leaders will need a concrete plan for the UK in order for them to be able to make an informed decision.”
Mrs May is due to write to the EU by the end of today to formally request the extension following the deadlock in Parliament and the threat by Commons Speaker Mr Bercow to prevent a further “meaningful vote” on her Withdrawal Agreement.
But her Cabinet was bitterly split over the delay last night after anger boiled over in the row, which came at a weekly Downing Street meeting, held with 10 days to go before the scheduled March 29 Brexit date. Officials conceded the deadline would be “impossible” to meet with a departure deal with the EU in place.