May warns Cabinet rebels her deal is final
PM facing stand-off with ‘gang of five’ as she insists Brexit agreement is non-negotiable
THERESA MAY will today confront the “gang of five” Cabinet Brexiteers by saying she will not renegotiate the EU Withdrawal Agreement, in a move that risks prompting fresh ministerial resignations.
The Prime Minister will use a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to say the terms of the UK’S divorce from the EU have been “agreed in full” and the only thing left to discuss is the future trade deal.
Andrea Leadsom, the Commons leader, is expected to convene a meeting today with Michael Gove, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling and Penny Mordaunt to decide how they can press Mrs May for last-minute changes to the deal. They believe there is still time to negotiate alterations, such as giving Britain a unilateral right to end any “backstop” arrangement over Northern Ireland.
It comes at the start of a week fraught with danger for Mrs May, who could face a no-confidence vote as soon as tomorrow if 48 Tory MPS formally call for one. The DUP is also contemplating telling its 10 MPS to vote in favour of opposition amendments to the Budget legislation, in a move that would hugely undermine Mrs May’s authority.
Mrs May will head to Brussels during the week to agree the basic points of a future trade deal with Europe. She will head back there on Sunday to sign off the whole Brexit deal before it is put to a vote in Parliament next month.
The Prime Minister warned Tory rebels yesterday that getting rid of her would change nothing, and said that if MPS did not back the Brexit deal she expected to agree with EU leaders Sunday, the most likely outcome would be no Brexit at all.
Dr Fox today holds out an olive branch to the Prime Minister by saying she “deserves support” in her negotiations this week in Brussels – which will focus on agreeing the basis of a future trade deal – before allowing Parliament to vote on whether the deal is appropriate for Britain.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, he becomes the first member of the “gang of five” to set out detailed reasons for his strategy. He refuses to explicitly back the Brexit deal but says Labour wants to “thwart Brexit entirely”, an outcome that would be “politically earth-shattering” and lead to a loss of faith in the political system.
Dr Fox and the four other ministers who are expected to meet today decided last week not to resign over the Brexit deal, in the hope that they could bring about change from within the Cabinet. Several are still said to be contemplating resigning if the Withdrawal Agreement is put to a vote in Parliament in its current form.
However, Mrs May will say in her CBI speech: “The core elements of the deal are already in place. The Withdrawal Agreement has been agreed in full, subject of course to final agreement being reached on the future framework. That agreement is a good one for the UK.”
Mrs May will also reveal her plans for immigration after Brexit. “We want
an immigration system for the future that everyone can have confidence in. One that allows us to attract the brightest and the best from around the world,” she will say. “In the future, outside the EU, immigration will continue to make a positive contribution to our national life. But the difference will be this: once we have left the EU, we will be fully in control of who comes here.”
Sir Graham Brady, head of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPS, said yesterday he had not received the 48 letters from colleagues that would be needed to trigger a no-confidence vote, and hinted that some MPS who claimed to have submitted letters might have lied. To date, 25 MPS have declared they have submitted letters.
Last night, a former Conservative chief whip warned his party against “hunting down” Mrs May. Andrew Mitchell recalled the ousting of Margaret Thatcher and said that any contest would do the party “untold damage”.
He told The Times: “If these letters succeed in triggering a challenge, then the party will turn in on itself and that is not a good place for the Conservatives to be, let alone the country. It will end up looking like we’re hunting the prime minister down as happened with Margaret Thatcher. It will do the party untold damage in the eyes of the public.”
Tory Brexiteers hoping for a vote that will unseat Mrs May believe they could get a significant boost today if the DUP votes against the Government in amendments to the Finance Bill, the legislation that makes the Budget law.
A Eurosceptic source said: “If the DUP votes against the Government, people will see that the Prime Minister can no longer get legislation through Parliament and that will significantly increase the number of MPS who are prepared to say ‘it’s over’ and express no confidence in her in a vote.”
The DUP is vehemently opposed to the Withdrawal Agreement because the backstop arrangement contained within it, which will ensure there is no hard border in Ireland if a trade deal cannot be agreed, treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK.
At least seven senior Tories are said to be preparing leadership bids if Mrs May is toppled: Boris Johnson, Amber Rudd, Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt, David Davis, Dominic Raab and Ms Mordaunt.