We could topple the Government warns Grieve
Fury at incendiary claim by Tory rebel ringleader trying to thwart Brexit
Dominic Grieve sparked fresh outrage last night after admitting that his rebel bid to tie Theresa may’s hands on Brexit could ‘collapse’ the Government.
The former attorney general said he was ‘determined’ to get his way so Parliament has the right to stop the Prime minister being able to walk away from the negotiating table without a deal.
But asked yesterday if voting against the Government could bring it down, mr Grieve said: ‘We could collapse the Government. And i can assure you i wake up at 2am in a cold sweat thinking about the problems that we have put on our shoulders. The difficulty is that the Brexit process is inherently risky.’
Last night, former Tory leader iain Duncan Smith called on mr Grieve to show loyalty to mrs may.
‘i am shocked that a member of the conservative Party could suggest that such a course of action was on the table,’ he said. ‘i don’t see how sensible conservatives could even begin to think that. Theresa may needs our full support and deserves to get it.’
The issue will come to a head this week when first peers and then mPs vote on amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill that could give Parliament the right to take control of the negotiations.
if the Government is ultimately defeated it is likely to raise major questions over mrs may’s Brexit strategy and the future of her administration.
mr Grieve and the Tory Brexit rebels have rejected a Government attempt to compromise on the issue. instead, they are proposing their own amendment that would ensure Parliament had the final say on whether Britain could leave the EU without a deal.
Labour peers will this afternoon support mr Grieve’s amendment that would give Parliament the power to direct mrs may in the event she does not get a deal or one is voted down by the commons.
if passed in the Lords, the amendment will return to the commons where mrs may will face a showdown with Remain- supporting mPs on Wednesday.
The Prime minister warned yesterday that the proposal was unacceptable. She told the BBc’s Andrew marr Show: ‘We need to recognise the role of Parliament, but ensure that the Government’s hands can’t be tied in negotiations and that Parliament does not overturn the will of the people.’
Last Tuesday mr Grieve led a group of 13 Tory mPs who forced mrs may into making concessions on the issue.
And he was then accused of ‘sup- ping with the devil’ after he held secret talks with enemies of Brexit. He was spotted slipping into the European commission’s Smith Square HQ in London on Wednesday for a private meeting of campaigners set on reversing the result of the referendum.
mr Grieve is president of the Franco-British Society, an organisation dedicated to encouraging closer relations between Britain and France’ and in 2016 he was awarded the Legion d’honneur, the French order of distinction.
Yesterday Solicitor General Robert Buckland warned that mr Grieve’s amendment would hand Brussels a ‘trump card’. He told the BBc’s Sunday Politics: ‘What we want to avoid in the new year, is some situation where somehow the commons becomes the backstop negotiator in all of this.
‘if you were [the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator] michel Barnier, you know it gives him a bit of a trump card to play when he knows that whatever the UK government might be saying to him now, he knows at the end of it
‘Don’t give a trump card to Brussels’