MPs ‘TO BREAK UP EARLY TO SPARE PM’

Bid to save May from Tory plots as Westminster is engulfed by Brexit chaos

PARLIAMENT could break up early for the summer in a desperate attempt to prevent Theresa May’s Brexit blueprint being engulfed by Tory infighting.

Chief Whip Julian Smith has proposed ending the parliamentary session on Thursday – five days earlier than planned – in an apparent bid to disrupt plotting against the Prime Minister.

The move would dramatically curtail the time available for disgruntled Tories to submit letters of no- confidence in Mrs May before the summer break, which is now set to last almost seven weeks.

It would also limit the time for any more Parliamentary battles over the Prime Minister’s Chequers deal.

Conservative MPs tore into each other yesterday as Leavers and Remainers fought over a series of amendments to the plan, which Brexiteers are determined to kill off.

But breaking up early for the summer is likely to cause fury at a moment of heightened political uncertainty. Labour MPs described it as a ‘disgrace’ and a sign that the Tories ‘ can’t govern’. MPs will vote on the motion today, with Tories Nick Boles and Sir Nicholas Soames saying they will oppose it. The row came on another extraordinary day in Westminster as Mrs May was forced to surrender on amendments from Tory Brexiteers.

In a show of strength, the anti- EU European Research Group, led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, forced the climbdown to neuter her plans.

Mrs May told MPs it was ‘absolutely wrong’ to suggest the concessions would wreck her propsals. She denied her scheme was ‘dead in the water’, adding: ‘They do not change the Chequers agreement.’

But Eurosceptic Sir Bernard Jenkin said: ‘I suspect the Chequers deal is dead.’ It came as:

▪ Tory MP Scott Mann quit over the deal, saying he could not support a ‘watered-down’ Brexit.

▪ He was followed by junior minister Guto Bebb, a Remainer, who became the tenth member of the Government to resign.

▪ David Davis said the UK would give ‘up a real future’ if it remained tied to the EU’s customs union.

▪ Referring to Tony Blair’s election landslide, Mr Davis’s former chief-of-staff Stewart Jackson said Tories faced an electoral defeat to ‘make 1997 look like a vicar’s tea party’ if they betrayed Brexit.

▪ Ten Tory Remainers prepared to follow former education secretary Justine Greening in calling for a second referendum.

▪ Tory Eurosceptic Andrea Jenkyns was warned she could face deselection after local activists criticised her for submitting a letter of no-confidence in Mrs May.

The dramatic bid to cut short the parliamentary term requires agreement from Labour.

One Cabinet source last night acknowledged that the move risks alienating voters. ‘It is not a good look,’ the source said. ‘We can’t very well argue that there is nothing to do. It just looks like we’re running away.’ Labour MP Wes Streeting tweeted: ‘What a disgrace. MPs sent away for summer early because the Government can’t govern.’

Government sources defended the decision, saying only minimal business was tabled for next week.

Downing Street was on red alert last night over the threat of a possible vote of no-confidence in Mrs May before the summer break as Tory activists angered by the Chequers deal urge their MPs to act against the Prime Minister.

Eurosceptic sources claimed more than 30 MPs have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, taking them within sight of the 48 needed to spark a confidence vote.

They also claimed more members of the Government would quit unless Mrs May abandons her Chequers deal. The Prime Minister accepted four amendments to the Customs Bill put down by Eurosceptics yesterday as she sought to avoid a showdown with her backbenchers.

Mrs May insisted it was not a ‘climbdown’, but a ringleader of the revolt declared: ‘We have killed off Chequers. It now cannot happen, it is dead on arrival.’ One change secured by Eurosceptics demands that the UK should scrap an offer to collect taxes and duties forthe EU unless the remaining 27 member states pledge to do the same for Britain. Ministers accepted the amendment even though it appears to contradict the Government’s Brexit White Paper. The other rebel amendments force the Government to commit itself in law not to allow a customs border down the Irish Sea, require the UK to have a separate VAT regime from the EU and force the Prime Minister to table primary legislation if she wishes to keep Britain in the customs union.

Making his first Commons appearance from the backbenches since resigning as Brexit secretary, Mr Davis urged MPs to prioritise trade with the ‘expanding, fastgrowing’ economies of nations worldwide rather than the ‘shrinking’ EU. He said those who wanted to keep Britain tied to EU customs deals ‘are trying to defend a false past and giving up a real future’.

There was anger in the Commons as rows broke out between Tory backbenchers. Former minister Sir Edward Leigh told Anna Soubry, another former minister, she ‘ain’t no Margaret Thatcher’ after she praised the ex-prime minister for her support of free trade.

Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames tweeted: ‘I don’t think in my 35 years as an MP I have ever known such a truly unpleasant and deeply uncertain time in the House. So very difficult to see a way ahead.’

‘Looks like we’re running away’

IN the real world outside the Westminster village, there’s been a sea- change in Remain voters’ view of Brexit since the narrow 48/52 per cent victory for Leave two years ago (if anyone can call a majority of 1.27million narrow).

For many months, growing numbers have told pollsters they want politicians to respect democracy and just get on with enacting the decision of the 17.4million who backed Leave – the biggest endorsement of any proposition or party in this country’s history.

Now a new survey has identified a further shift in public attitudes, which should fill Theresa May with foreboding.

Published in the (Remain- supporting) Daily Mirror, this finds 39 per cent of voters now want a no-deal Brexit – almost twice as many as the mere 20 per cent who back the Prime Minister’s half- in, half- out compromise agreed at Chequers.

As for the Mail, we have always argued that a free trade deal with the EU is in Britain’s interests – not to mention those of our 27 soon-to-be-ex partners, who have an £80billion trade surplus with us and therefore have much more to lose from the UK’s departure without a deal.

Indeed, this paper was confident that Brussels would have to accept an agreement to suit everyone, if only our negotiators would exploit the UK’s massive leverage.

But then along came the dismal Chequers compromise, drafted in impenetrable bureaucratese by the Eurofanatical Civil Service. Would this truly free us to strike deals with the rest of the world, as Mrs May claims? Donald Trump is not alone in having serious doubts.

Nor is it at all clear that the Government’s proposals would restore full control of our borders, free us from subjection to European judges or spare us from making substantial payments to an EU in which we will have no say.

Doesn’t it speak volumes about the weakness of this document that Mrs May is now reduced to arguing that Tory MPs must support it – or run the risk that Brexit won’t happen at all?

What is so frustrating is that every day brings more evidence to strengthen Britain’s bargaining hand, and weaken the EU’s. Take yesterday’s growth forecasts from the IMF, delivering thumping downgrades for France, Germany and Italy – the worst of all developed economies.

Or listen to Boeing’s boss, who has joined a chorus of business confidence in postBrexit Britain. ‘We are going to continue to grow in the UK’, says Dennis Muilenburg. So why the defeatism in Government?

With the Tories hopelessly split – and Remoaners joining treacherous calls for a second referendum – this paper awaits with interest Brexiteer Boris’s next move, which could come as early as today.

But for the moment, the Mail urges the party to do nothing rash while Westminster’s annual summer madness still rages.

Over the long recess, MPs will have plenty of time to digest the full implications of the Chequers compromise and weigh up how best to act in the country’s interest.

Meanwhile, the good news is that Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is stepping up contingency plans for a no-deal withdrawal. The Mail still hopes it won’t come to this. But if the alternative is surrender to Brussels, isn’t it looking like an increasingly attractive – and popular – option? DEEPLY flawed maverick though Donald Trump is, this paper has never shared the Left’s vehement hostility to everything he says and does. But isn’t it thoroughly distasteful to see him cosying up to Vladimir Putin before the latest Novichok victim in Salisbury is even cold in her grave? Where does this leave the President’s assurance to Mrs May that the US-UK relationship is the ‘highest level of special’?