Chequers deal is dead, say rebels
Eurosceptics insist May will have to rethink her flawed Brexit blueprint after caving in to their demands
TORY Eurosceptics last night claimed to have killed off Theresa May’s Chequers deal by forcing her to make changes that will leave it “dead on arrival” in Brussels.
The Prime Minister was forced to deny that her Brexit blueprint was fatally compromised after she caved in to four demands from Leave supporters in order to avoid a Commons rebellion over a key piece of Brexit legislation.
Jubilant Brexiteers believe Brussels will now reject the Chequers plan, forcing Mrs May to think again.
But with Tory divisions over Europe once again threatening to tear the party apart, Remain-supporting Conservatives, furious at Mrs May’s concessions, came close to inflicting a damaging defeat on the Government last night.
The most contentious of the Brexiteer amendments to the customs Bill was passed by 305 votes to 302, a majority of just three. A total of 14 Tories rebelled, including Guto Bebb, who immediately resigned as minister for defence procurement, becoming the eighth member of the Government to quit over Brexit.
Ominously for Mrs May, the number of her MPS prepared to defy the whip is growing, and she only avoided defeat because four Labour MPS voted with the Government.
Mrs May is likely to face a fresh rebellion from Remainers today when another Brexit bill, covering trade, is put before the Commons.
The sense of chaos surrounding the Prime Minister increased last night when it emerged that the Government will try to bring Parliament’s summer recess forward to Thursday, five days earlier than scheduled. Whitehall sources insisted the idea was simply to avoid MPS having to return for a single day next week, but it would also mean Mrs May’s critics in her own party would not have time to force a confidence vote in her before September.
Labour, as well as several Tory MPS, signalled that they will oppose the plan, condemning Mrs May to almost another week of turmoil.
It came as Mrs May prepared to address grassroots members in a conference call tomorrow in a direct appeal to them to back her deal, after Conservative Central HQ emailed constituency chairmen pleading with them to publicly support the proposal.
One senior Conservative warned that the Brexit plan amounted to an “existential issue” for the Tory party which risks being wiped out at the next general election if is seen as “betraying 17.4 million people”.
Tory MPS suggested Mrs May was facing the sort of crisis that John Major faced over the Maastricht Treaty before he was swept aside by Tony Blair in 1997, heralding 13 years of Labour rule.
Sir Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, said it was the most “unpleasant and deeply uncertain time” in Parliament in his 35 years as a Tory MP.
However, a close ally of Philip Hammond, the Remain-backing Chancellor, mockingly described talk of crisis over the Chequers plan as “fake news”, adding: “Crisis? What crisis?”
Brexiteers in the Tory party celebrated after Mrs May accepted four amendments to the customs Bill tabled by Jacob Rees-mogg, leader of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPS, and others.
The most controversial of them would prevent Britain collecting EU tariffs at the borders – a key part of Mrs May’s customs plan – unless Brussels agreed to a reciprocal arrangement.
Simon Clarke, a Conservative backbencher, said: “The [Chequers] deal is
holed below the waterline. We are tearing ourselves apart over something that is dead, and that is incredibly frustrating. We urgently need to think again so that we have a workable strategy.”
Andrew Bridgen MP, another Tory Eurosceptic, said: “The level of support for the amendments that were adopted by the Government are indicative of the levels of opposition to the Chequers proposal.”
Sources in Brussels said all of Mrs May’s customs suggestions had been rejected, so the amendments made no difference to the chance of a deal being agreed.
The other amendments accepted by the Government require Britain to have a separate VAT regime from the EU; require an act of Parliament for Britain to stay in a customs union and make a customs border down the Irish Sea illegal.
MPS from both wings of the party attacked Mrs May’s Brexit blueprint, as
‘We are tearing ourselves apart over something that is dead, and that is incredibly frustrating’
well as each other, as a debate on the Brexit customs bill descended into angry mud-slinging.
Anna Soubry, the Remain-supporting Tory MP, suggested Mr Rees-mogg was now “running Britain” and accused the Prime Minister of accepting the amendments because she is “frightened” of a hard core of 40 Leave-backing backbenchers.
The Labour MP Stephen Kinnock accused Mrs May of “dancing to the tune” of the ERG and agreed that by “capitulating”, the Chequers deal is now “dead in the water”.
Former Cabinet minister Ken Clarke told MPS that the Government’s adoption of ERG amendments was “directly inconsistent with the White Paper of a week ago”.
But Mrs May told MPS: “I would not have gone through all the work that I did to ensure that we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these Bills. They do not change that Chequers agreement.”