No-confidence votes and debates about manner of exit will only delay or stop us leaving EU, warns May
THERESA MAY has warned MPS that if they do not back her Brexit deal, they will end up with no Brexit at all.
The Prime Minister said debates about the perfect Brexit only risked a situation where Brexit was delayed or people tried to stop it happening.
She also told Tory MPS considering submitting letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her that a leadership contest would delay negotiations and could frustrate Brexit altogether.
Mrs May faces what she herself described as a critical week in which she could face a leadership challenge as well as Cabinet resignations if she refuses to change the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU.
She said there had “been some controversy about the leaving part of the deal” but that would be temporary and that she would be in Brussels this week to negotiate the key points of a longterm trade deal which will form part of the agreement with the EU.
Mrs May will return to Brussels on Sunday for the leaders’ summit.
But any deal there will have to be ratified by Parliament and there now seems little chance that MPS will back it in its current form.
In an interview on Sky News’s Sophy
Ridge on Sunday, Mrs May made it clear that her deal was the only one on offer and any attempt to block it would only serve to put Brexit at risk.
She said: “We can have debates in Westminster about ‘is this the perfect Brexit for one person’s viewpoint, or the perfect Brexit from somebody else’s viewpoint’ – what matters is that we deliver Brexit and what matters is when people come to look at this deal and vote for it in Parliament, they recognise the importance of ensuring we deliver Brexit.
“I don’t want to risk ending up in a situation where Brexit is somehow delayed, or people try stop it from happening.”
She said if Conservative MPS forced a no-confidence vote in her, “what it will do is bring in a degree of uncertainty. That is uncertainty for people and their jobs. A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier and it’s not going to change the parliamentary arithmetic. What it will do is mean that it is a risk that we delay the negotiations and that
‘It’s about people and their futures. Let’s give them the certainty of this bright future, that’s delivering Brexit on a good deal. That’s this deal’
is a risk that Brexit gets delayed or frustrated.”
Mrs May admitted she had endured a tough week, with seven ministers or senior MPS resigning, but had never thought about giving up because “this isn’t about me – it’s actually about what’s right for the people of this country”.
She said: “It’s very easy in Westminster to get involved in intricacies of debate and not to remember that what this is about is not us, it’s about people out there and their futures … let’s give them the certainty of this bright future, that’s delivering Brexit on a good deal. That’s this deal.”
Mrs May faces demands this week from the so-called Gang of Five – the Brexiteer Cabinet ministers Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt, Liam Fox and Chris Grayling – to make changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, but she made it clear they would be disappointed. She said: “What is going to determine our future relationship, bring that end to free movement and end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, is that future part of the deal. These two go together, and we won’t agree the leaving part until we’ve got the future part.”
Mrs May insisted that the Northern Ireland backstop, which will come into force to avoid a hard border with Ireland if no deal is agreed, could only be temporary under the legal arrangements of the EU.
The Prime Minister also spoke about what would happen if the Brexit deal was voted down by Parliament, saying: “There’s a process that Parliament will go through, were it the case that the deal is lost then the Government will come back with their proposals for what the next step is.” Dozens of Con- servative MPS have already indicated that they will vote against the deal, as have the Democratic Unionist Party’s 10 MPS, Labour and other smaller parties.
If they all stick to their word, Mrs May will face certain defeat when the Brexit deal is put to a vote, but she is gambling that Parliament will not want to risk the alternatives – no deal or no Brexit – and will, ultimately, back her.
She said: “What I’m saying is I think every member of Parliament will look at the deal – they’ll want to ask themselves ‘how can I make sure that we deliver Brexit and how can I do it in a way that’s good for my constituents?’
“Remember there are those, in the House of Commons, who just want to stop Brexit. I believe it’s essential for people’s trust in politics, and trust in Parliament, that we deliver on Brexit for people.”