‘There will be difficult days ahead’
May faces furious backlash after she is accused of railroading controversial Brexit deal through Cabinet
THERESA MAY was accused of railroading a Brexit deal through Cabinet last night as she faced a potential leadership challenge within days following a furious Tory backlash.
During a highly charged five-hour Cabinet meeting, 11 out of 28 ministers spoke out against the proposed deal, and at least three ministers are this morning understood to be considering resigning.
Esther Mcvey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is said by colleagues to be “on the brink” after a confrontation in the Cabinet room with Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary. It came as Mrs May refused pleas from dissenters for a formal show of hands.
The 585-page draft withdrawal agreement, which was finally published last night after more than two years of negotiations, confirms that a proposed “backstop” arrangement for Northern Ireland cannot be ended without the consent of the EU.
The Prime Minister insisted the Cabinet had taken a decision “in the na- tional interest” and warned MPS that if they voted against the deal they would be left with “no deal or no Brexit at all”.
But last night she appeared to have lost the support both of Eurosceptic Tories and the DUP, on whose MPS she relies for her parliamentary majority.
Jacob Rees-mogg, the leader of the 60-strong ERG group of Leave-supporting Tory MPS, wrote to his colleagues to say he “cannot support the proposed agreement” and called on them to join him in voting against it.
Several Eurosceptic Tory MPS were last night reported to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, demanding a confidence vote in Mrs May after saying it was time to change leader. If 48 letters are submitted, a vote will be triggered automatically.
The DUP also vowed to vote against the deal because the proposed “backstop” to avoid a hard border in Ireland if there is no trade deal would mean different rules for the UK and Northern Ireland.
Sammy Wilson, the DUP’S Brexit spokesman, told Channel 4 News that the EU was trying to achieve “what the IRA couldn’t achieve” by forcing through a deal that would weaken the Union. Sources close to the DUP leader Arlene Foster said last night that the inclusion in the proposed deal of new North-south bodies in Ireland – which the DUP has always resisted – was a deal-breaker.
The document is expected to be rubber-stamped by EU leaders at a special summit on Nov 25 after Jean-claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said the withdrawal negotiations had “concluded” and “the next step in the process can begin”.
Mrs May will then face the far more difficult task of getting Parliament to back the deal, and she admitted there would be “difficult days ahead”.
Just how difficult will become apparent today as she presents the proposed deal to Parliament. During what Mrs May described as an “impassioned” Cabinet meeting yesterday, Ms Mcvey was said to be “emotional” and “aggressive towards the Prime Minister” and called for an official vote to be taken.
In return, Mr Sedwill was said by one source to have “shouted her down”, though other sources insisted Mr Sedwill was “polite”.
It left Ms Mcvey considering her position today along with Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House, and Penny Mordaunt, the International Development Secretary.
Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, and Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, raised concerns that the proposed deal would prevent Britain striking trade deals with third countries after Brexit.
Agreement was only reached when the ministers accepted it was “this or Corbyn”, sources told The Daily Telegraph.
There was speculation last night that Mrs May was preparing to drop her Chequers proposal in favour of a Canada-style trade deal after Government sources refused to confirm that she wants to see a common rule book and facilitated customs arrangement in the final deal as set out in Chequers.
However, Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, signalled that a Canada-style free trade deal was now off the table.
He said the future trading relationship would be based on Britain remain- ing in a permanent customs union with the EU. He said: “Our objective is to abolish customs duties and quotas for all goods based on what we’re proposing in the Withdrawal Agreement, a single customs territory.”
A UK official stressed: “That is their negotiating position, not our negotiating position.”
The details of Britain’s future trading relationship with the EU will be decided in negotiations during the transition period that will follow the UK’S exit in March next year.
Mrs May said last night: “I firmly believe that the draft withdrawal agreement was the best that could be negotiated … the choices before us were difficult, particularly in relation to the Northern Ireland decision.
“This is a decisive step, which enables us to move on and finalise the deal in the days ahead.
“These decisions were not taken lightly, but I believe it is a decision in the national interest.”
She said the alternative to her deal was to “go back to square one, with more division and more uncertainty, with a failure to deliver on the result of the referendum”.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Brandon Lewis, the Conservative Party
chairman, said: “This is not a proposal that will please everyone, and no negotiation could produce such a proposal.”
Mr Rees-mogg said: “There is the risk of an accident, a lot of people feel very let down by the reports of the settlement and, without any organisation, might be writing letters.”
Mr Wilson compared the deal to a “punishment beating” for the UK, in a comment that was criticised as inflammatory and insensitive.
He added: “People went through 40 years of terrorism to remain part of the UK. Thousands of people died in that terrorist campaign because they wanted to stay within the Union. If the EU think that they can achieve what the IRA couldn’t achieve, they’ve got another think coming.”