May ‘could face long Brexit delay’
THERESA May could duck a third Commons showdown on her Withdrawal Agreement, resulting in a long delay to Brexit unless Tory rebels fall in line.
Cabinet ministers said another vote on the deal would not be held unless the Prime Minister was confident of overturning last week’s overwhelming defeat.
Unless the 149-vote humiliation can be reversed, Mrs May would be forced to seek a lengthy extension to the Article 50 process, with the UK required to elect MEPs in May, Chancellor Philip Hammond said.
The Prime Minister herself has warned of what Westminster insiders have dubbed a “Hotel California” Brexit where the UK can never leave. She said that if MPs did not back her deal before Thursday’s European Council summit “we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever”.
It would be a “potent symbol of Parliament’s collective political failure” if a delay to Brexit meant the UK was forced to elect MEPs in May almost three years after voting to leave, Mrs May said.
As part of the effort to put pressure on Tory hardliners and the DUP to shift position and support the deal, Mr Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox made clear that the Prime Minister might not even risk a third defeat on her deal after the 230-vote loss in January and last week’s 149-vote reverse.
Mr Hammond said: “We will only bring the deal back if we are confident that enough of our colleagues and the DUP are prepared to support it so that we can get it through Parliament.
“We are not just going to keep presenting it if we haven’t moved the dial.”
He said a “significant number” of MPs had changed their minds because the alternatives to Mrs May’s deal were “so unpalatable” to them, but he acknowledged it remained a “work in progress” to secure enough votes. But in a warning of what was at stake, Mr Hammond added: “Clearly if we don’t get this deal through, we are almost certainly going to have to fight a European parliamentary election, almost certainly going to have a longer extension, almost certainly not going to be able to gain access to the fiscal headroom I talked about in the Spring Statement.”
The Chancellor insisted it was “not economic blackmail, it’s common sense” to say that he would not be able to release the almost £27 billion of “fiscal headroom” unless the deal was done, as he needed to keep it in reserve to cope with a no-deal departure.
Dr Fox said: “I would say to my colleagues: all actions have consequences, and if you really want to deliver the Brexit we all promised... then we need to back the Prime Minister’s deal, because there is no other deal on offer.”
But so far the number of Tories publicly switching positions has amounted to a trickle rather than the flood the Prime Minister needs as she seeks 75 more votes for her deal.