WE’LL TORPEDO PM’S BREXIT DEAL
Tory rebels plot to sabotage her blueprint in Commons
TORY Eurosceptics are plotting to inflict a series of Commons defeats on Theresa May next week as they step up their ‘guerilla war’ on her Brexit blueprint.
They have tabled four amendments to the PM’s flagship trade bill that would stop her enacting the plan agreed by the Cabinet at Chequers.
The revolt could wipe out Mrs May’s majority when the legislation returns to the Commons on Monday, in the first significant test of strength of her Brexit critics. The Prime Minister faces a war on two fronts as Remain-supporting Tories led by Dominic Grieve are also planning their own amendments to keep Britain tied closely to the EU.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers, last night said the Chequers plan had led to a ‘breakdown in trust’. He warned that Mrs May must now perform a U-turn or be forced to rely on Labour votes to get her legislation through Parliament. Mr Rees-Mogg said the amendments would ‘help rescue us from the failure of Chequers’, adding: ‘We are hoping to help the Government stick to its previous commitments.’
A source added that a series of defeats would act as a warning shot to Mrs May by Brexiteers over her Chequers blueprint.
He said: ‘The Government has a very small majority, and there are quite a lot of people who want a proper Brexit. The Government forgot that at Chequers.
One of the rebel amendments, signed by Mr Rees-Mogg, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and ex-cabinet minister Priti Patel, demands that the UK should scrap an offer to collect taxes and duties on behalf of the EU, unless the remaining 27 member states pledge to do the same for Britain.They believe this would make it almost impossible for Mrs May to put in place the customs arrangements set out in her Chequers plan.
A second – backed by the Democratic Unionist Party, former cabinet minister Owen Paterson and Labour’s Kate Hoey – would force the Government to commit itself in law not to allow a customs border down the Irish Sea.
Others would require the UK to have a separate VAT regime from Brussels and force the Prime Minister to table primary legislation if she wishes to keep Britain in the customs union.
Senior Tory backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin said: ‘These four amendments reflect existing Government policy, and we hope they will be welcomed by the Government.’ The move follows warnings the Prime Minister faces ‘guerilla warfare’ in Parliament from angry Tory backbenchers determined to block her plans.
Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns yesterday warned that party supporters were also in revolt over the deal and were even cutting up their membership cards in protest. She tweeted: ‘This is heartbreaking to hear. The Government must realise the strength of feeling from not only Brexiteers in Parliament, but our dedicated party volunteers who pound the streets for us, help- ing MPs get elected.’ Miss Jenkyns told BBC2’s Newsnight other resignations could follow those of Boris Johnson, David Davis, Brexit minister Steve Baker, two Tory vice-chairmen and two parliamentary aides if the PM makes ‘further concessions with the EU’.
Fellow Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told Sky News: ‘At the first indication of further concessions to the EU, I think there will be another round of resignations because the position is untenable.’
Last night Mrs May insisted her Chequers deal delivered on the ‘red lines’ which she set out in her Lancaster House speech last year.
‘It delivers on the vote that people gave on Brexit, it delivers the fact that we will have an end to free movement, we will have an end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK, we won’t be sending vast contributions to the EU every year, we’ll be out of the Common Agricultural Policy, out of the Common Fisheries Policy,’ she said.
‘We deliver that Brexit and we do it in a way that protects jobs and livelihoods and meets our commitment to Northern Ireland.’
Former party leader William Hague warned party rebels that voting against the PM’s final deal could ‘endanger everything they have been trying to achieve’. ‘There is a whole range of scenarios in which they get no Brexit, or an indefinitely delayed Brexit, or a change of government or a second referendum,’ he told Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘A breakdown in trust’