May falls on her sword
♦prime Minister promises Tory MPS she will quit in final effort to save her deal ♦leading Brexiteers back Withdrawal Agreement but DUP refuses to bow ♦commons rejects all eight alternative Brexit options during indicative votes
THERESA MAY last night offered to resign in a last-ditch attempt to persuade MPS to back her Brexit deal.
The Prime Minister said she had “heard very clearly” the mood of the Conservative Party and would not “stand in the way” of a new leader taking charge of the next phase of the Brexit negotiations.
Senior Brexiteers including Boris Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith responded by promising to back Mrs May’s deal, which could now be put to a vote for a third time tomorrow.
The former foreign secretary told
The Daily Telegraph he was “very, very sorry” to have changed his mind, “but in the end the thing I fought for may never happen”. He added that unless Mrs May’s deal was passed: “I genuinely think the House of Commons is going to steal Brexit.”
Significant obstacles to Mrs May’s deal remain after the DUP said last night that it was still “impossible” to back the Withdrawal Agreement.
On a day of high drama in Parliament, Mrs May told Conservative MPS she was “prepared to leave this job earlier than I intended in order to do what is right for our country and our party”.
If Parliament finally passed the deal, Britain would leave the EU on May 22 and a Tory leadership contest would begin days after that, with Mrs May staying in a caretaker role until her successor was appointed.
Last night MPS rejected all eight alternatives to Mrs May’s deal put forward in a series of so-called “indicative votes”, but the options of a second referendum and a customs union both got more support than Mrs May’s deal received in its two previous votes.
More than 20 Tory MPS who rejected the deal earlier this month said they would now back it, but Mrs May must still convince the DUP and a hard core of Eurosceptics to change their minds to have any chance of it passing.
The deal was voted down by a majority of 149 earlier this month, meaning 75 MPS need to switch sides for it to pass.
Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, dealt a blow to Mrs May’s hopes by saying the Irish backstop was an “unacceptable threat to the integrity of the UK”.
In addition, about 20 Tories still said they would reject the deal, accusing Mr Johnson and other “switchers” of betrayal. At a fiery meeting of the Brexiteer European Research Group, Steve Baker, the group’s deputy chairman, was given a standing ovation after he described Mrs May’s speech to MPS as a “pantomime” and said he was “consumed with a ferocious rage”.
At the same meeting, Mr Johnson announced his support for the deal. He told The Telegraph: “I have done this on behalf of the 17.4million people who voted for Brexit. I feel very, very sorry and though it fills me with pain, I’m going to have to support this thing.
“Sometimes you just have to make a judgment. We have got to get this thing over the line.
“You can hang on and be pure but in the end the thing I fought for may never happen. I genuinely think that unless this thing gets through, the House of Commons is going to steal Brexit.”
In last night’s indicative votes, the two most popular options were a second referendum to confirm any deal passed by Parliament, which gained 268 votes, though with 295 against; and leaving the EU with a customs union, which had 264 “ayes” to 272 “noes”.
The two options will now be debated further on Monday and put to a formal vote unless Mrs May’s deal passes before then. Downing Street will hope that the possibility of a customs union or a second referendum will persuade even more Brexiteers to fall into line.
Mrs May had come under intense pressure to set out a timetable for her departure, but her announcement at a meeting of the back-bench 1922 Committee still took many MPS by surprise.
She said: “I have heard very clearly the mood of the parliamentary party. I know there is a desire for a new approach, and new leadership, in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations and I won’t stand in the way of that.
“I know some people are worried that if you vote for the Withdrawal Agreement, I will take that as a mandate to rush on into phase two without the debate we need to have. I won’t – I hear what you are saying.”
Mrs May would be expected to formally announce the timetable for her departure either after her deal was approved or on May 23, the day after Britain would leave the EU. A formal leadership contest would be likely to start on May 28, with a new leader in place before the end of July. Some leadership contenders were already phoning MPS last night to try to build support.
Downing Street sources said that if Mrs May’s deal was not approved by Parliament, she would carry on to seek an alternative solution.
John Bercow put a fresh obstacle in the way of Mrs May’s deal as he told her he would block any attempt to force through a vote on anything that was not “substantially” different to before.
There were also fears among Mrs May’s supporters that she might lose the backing of MPS who had previously voted for the deal, because they fear a Brexiteer such as Mr Johnson taking over the next round of EU talks.
MPS also voted by 441 votes to 105 to officially change the date of Britain’s exit from the EU from March 29 to April 12.