Tories tell May to set her exit date today

Jacob Rees-mogg among the senior Brexiteers who say they will now vote for Withdrawal Agreement

THERESA MAY will today be urged by her own MPS to name the date of her departure as the price of getting her Brexit deal through Parliament.

The Prime Minister will attend a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPS where she will be pressed to announce she will be gone by the autumn. In return, “a lot” of Brexiteers would drop their opposition to her Brexit deal, giving her until Friday night to get it agreed before a deadline set by the EU.

Eleven Tory MPS who previously voted against the deal have signalled they are prepared to switch sides, including Jacob Rees-mogg, the leader of the ERG group of Brexiteers, who said yesterday that the deal was “definitely not” worse than remaining in the EU.

Last night, Boris Johnson gave a strong hint that he could be persuaded to back the deal if Mrs May agreed to quit. Speaking at The Daily Telegraph’s ‘Boris on Brexit Live’ event, he said: “If we vote it down again, for the third time, there is now, I think, an appreciable risk that we will not leave at all.

“If people like me are to support this deal … then we need to see the proof that the second phase of negotiations will be different from the first.” Mr Johnson added, however, that he was “not there yet”.

Downing Street hopes that a series of so-called indicative votes being held today on alternatives to the deal will panic Brexiteers into backing Mrs May for fear that the only alternatives will become a softer Brexit or no Brexit at all.

Mrs May still hopes to persuade the DUP to back her agreement, after the party distanced itself from comments made by Sammy Wilson, its Brexit spokesman, who said a year-long delay would be better than the deal.

If Mrs May believes she has enough support to get her deal through the Commons, she is expected to hold a third “meaningful vote” on it tomorrow, though Michael Gove has urged her to hold it on Friday – the day Britain should have left the EU. She must persuade at least 75 MPS to change their minds if she is to win through.

Some Eurosceptics will make it clear to her tonight that the price they will extract for their support is her departure. Nigel Evans, the executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, said: “It would be incredibly wise of her to announce the date of her departure and I am encouraging her to do so.

“If the Prime Minister announces a timetable of departure, I think that’s going to swing a lot of people behind her deal. We could get it over the line.”

Yesterday a growing number of Tory MPS said they had reluctantly decided to back Mrs May’s deal, regardless of whether she resigned, because they had run out of alternatives. They included Michael Fabricant, who said Mrs May’s deal was “the only practical way forward for now”, and David Davis, the former Brexit secretary.

A range of motions setting out alternatives to Mrs May’s deal were tabled yesterday, to be put to a vote today. They include remaining in a customs union with the EU, forming a new common market, leaving with no deal, revoking Article 50 and a Norway-style arrangement that would continue free movement.

AT LEAST 11 Eurosceptics have reluctantly thrown their support behind Theresa May’s deal amid concerns the alternative would be “losing Brexit”.

Yesterday Jacob Rees-mogg said: “The choice seems to be Mrs May’s deal or no Brexit.” Today, writing in the Daily Mail he confirmed that he would now back the deal, saying: “I apologise for changing my mind, by doing so I will be accused of infirmity of purpose by some and treachery by others… I have come to this view because the numbers make it clear that all the other potential outcomes are worse and an awkward reality needs to be faced.”

Mr Rees-mogg, who leads the Brexiteer European Research Group, has twice voted against the deal and previously said the only way he could support the deal would be if the customs backstop was removed.

Senior Brexiteer John Whittingdale also now plans to support Mrs May’s deal, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

A source close to the former minister said he has decided to vote for it to avoid losing Brexit.

Yesterday, a number of Tory MPS also said they will vote for the Withdrawal Agreement. Michael Fabricant said it is “the least worst option but the only practical way forward for now” while Gordon Henderson said he was willing to let go of his “severe reservations”.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, told The Times: “There is a pretty good chance the prime minister’s deal is going to get through,” adding that it would help some of his

fellow holdouts to vote for the deal if Mrs May agreed to resign.

Yesterday, David Davis said Mrs May now has a “reasonable chance” of getting her deal through Parliament.

The former Brexit secretary told the BBC: “It’s not a good deal but the alternative is a complete cascade of chaos.”

However, other Brexiteers expressed anger at the ERG and said Mr Reesmogg’s intervention has come too late.

Tory MP Andrew Percy has signed a motion for a Common Market 2.0 Norway-style Brexit because he has “run out of patience with the ERG” and its “intransigence”.

“The reason we are not leaving the EU as promised to the people on Friday is because of the behaviour of the ERG,” the Brexiteer said. “They have pushed us to a softer Brexit.” Mr Percy, who has twice voted for Mrs May’s deal, told The Telegraph he has had past words by Jacob Rees-mogg “used against me by people who say I have been betraying Brexit”.

He said Mr Rees-mogg’s suggestion that he will vote for the deal after all is “infuriating” as it is “what other Leavers have been saying for months – that it’s either the PM’S deal or no Brexit.

“It is time for Leavers to accept we have to coalesce around a proposal that can deliver what people voted for and can also command support across the House. There is a very real risk we will lose Brexit altogether.”

Tonight, Mrs May could lay out a timetable for her departure from Downing Street in order to sway previously hostile Tory MPS.

The Prime Minister will address members of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPS, stoking rumours that she could be preparing a significant announcement, possibly connected with her departure.

Last night the Government received a further boost when the DUP distanced itself from comments by Sammy Wilson, its Brexit spokesman, who said he would prefer a one-year Brexit extension rather than Mrs May’s “toxic” deal.

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Wilson said: “Even if we are forced into a oneyear extension, we at least would have a say on the things which affect us during that time. Surely this is a better strategy than volunteering to be locked into the prison of the withdrawal deal with the cell door key in the pocket of Michel Barnier?”

A DUP spokesman stressed it did not support Mr Wilson’s comments and said: “Our position remains unchanged and as previously set out. We will judge all proposals and scenarios on the basis of our objectives to maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom and deliver on the referendum result.”