Tory rebels plan delayed assault on Brexit

Remainers tell May that winning this week’s votes is not enough as they target two more Bills next month

THERESA MAY will tonight tell her MPS to “send a message to the country” by staying united in key Brexit votes this week, but has already been warned of a fresh plot to thwart her plans.

The Government faces a series of knife-edge votes on amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill during two days of debates starting tomorrow. Defeat would put both the Prime Minister’s Brexit plans and her job under threat.

In an address to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPS, she will stress the need to prove “our determination to deliver on the decision made by the British people”.

But even if Mrs May avoids defeat this week, bullish Remainers have insisted they are not in the “last chance saloon” and believe they have a better prospect of winning when two more pieces of Brexit legislation return to the Commons next month.

Tory rebels led by Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, want Mrs May to accept an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill aimed at keeping Britain in a customs union with Brussels, as well as a second amendment on a giving MPS a “meaningful vote” on the final Brexit deal.

Mrs May, however, will tell them: “The message we send to the country through our votes this week is important. We must be clear that we are united as a party in our determination to deliver on the decision made by the British people. They want us to deliver on Brexit and build a brighter future for Britain.”

Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, David Lidington, the Cabinet Office Minister, says MPS face a “stark choice” between voting for legislation that is simply intended to transpose EU law into British law, or to support “hostile amendments” tabled with “the avowed intention of damaging the Brexit process”.

He tells his colleagues it is “profoundly in the national interest that they should choose the first path”. Kenneth Clarke, the former Tory chancellor who is among the rebels, hinted yesterday that support for the amendments is waning, as he said: “There will be a lot of discussions, even tomorrow… there will be discussion about how many of us are going to do it.”

Dominic Raab, the housing minister, said he was “reasonably confident” the Bill will be passed without amendment, and sources within the Remain camp told The Telegraph that several Tory rebels want to give Mrs May a “clear run” at the European Council summit at the end of June, at which she hopes to make progress on customs arrangements.

While they are prepared to hold their fire for now, 10 Tory rebels have put their names to similar amendments to the Trade Bill and Customs Bill, which are due to be debated next month.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “The idea that this Tuesday or this Wednesday is the last chance saloon on a single market deal is misconceived. There will be another chance with those Bills.”