Brexit backlash unleashed
Dominic Raab and Esther McVey among ministers to resign Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg submits letter of no confidence But Prime Minister Theresa May remains defiant and defends her plan
THERESA May has vowed to fight on and deliver Brexit, after one of the toughest days of her premiership saw her hit by four ministerial resignations and a wave of demands for her removal as Prime Minister.
Dominic Raab and Esther McVey sensationally walked out of Mrs May’s Cabinet, while leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg declared he had no confidence in her leadership amid a furious backlash against her plans for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
During three hours of questioning in the House of Commons, the PM faced Tory backbench accusations that the Brexit deal agreed by Cabinet on Wednesday was “dead on arrival” and would never survive the parliamentary vote expected next month.
Only a handful of her own MPs spoke up in favour of the plan, denounced by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a “half-baked deal” which did not meet the six tests his party had set for it to get their support.
But in a defiant press conference in 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister insisted she would “see this through”.
Mrs May said: “Serving in high office is an honour and privilege.
“It is also a heavy responsibility – that is true at any time but especially when the stakes are so high.”
The Brexit negotiations are “a matter of the highest consequence”, she said, touching “almost every area of our national life”.
“I believe with every fibre of my being that the course I have set out is the right one for our country and all our people,” she added.
Asked if she would contest a confidence vote and carry on as Prime Minister if she won by a single vote, Mrs May said: “Leadership is about taking the right decisions, not the easy ones.
“As Prime Minister my job is to bring back a deal that delivers on the vote of the British people, that does that by ending free movement, all the things I raised in my statement... ensuring we are not sending vast annual sums to the EU any longer, ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, but also protects jobs and protects people’s livelihoods, protects our security, protects the Union of the United Kingdom.
“I believe this is a deal which does deliver that, which is in the national interest and am I going to see this through? Yes.”
When asked if “no Brexit” is a “definite threat”, she insisted the country is leaving the EU on March 29.
She states: “As far as I’m concerned, there will not be a second referendum.”
When asked if she regretted holding last year’s election, she said no.
After 21 minutes, she turned on her heel and left, having not said anything very different to what she had said earlier in the Commons.
Her appearance came at the end of a chaotic day in which the value of the pound plunged amid widespread doubts over whether Mrs May could deliver her deal or would even be able to cling on to power.
Mr Raab – the man chosen in July to represent Mrs May in negotiations with Brussels - quit as Brexit Secretary, warning the deal represented a “very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom” because of provisions for Northern Ireland.
And Ms McVey resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary, telling the PM she could not defend the agreement approved by Cabinet in a stormy five-hour meeting.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, dramatically announced that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Mrs May’s leadership, declaring that her deal “has turned out to be worse than anticipated and fails to meet the promises given to the nation by the Prime Minister”.
His move is expected to be matched by other ERG members, raising expectations that the tally of letters to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, may soon pass the threshold of 48 which would trigger a confidence vote.
Two more junior ministers – Suella Braverman at the Brexit department and Shailesh Vara at Northern Ireland – also quit.
And Mrs May also lost two parliamentary private secretaries and a vice-chairman of the party.
Another Cabinet Brexiteer, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, was in Downing Street to see the Prime Minister on yesterday evening.
There were rumours at Westminster that Leave-supporting Michael Gove had been lined up to replace Mr Raab – but he would only agree to the job if he could renegotiate the deal.
Asked about the speculation, Mrs May said Mr Gove was “doing an excellent job” as Environment Secretary.
The developments threaten to derail the Prime Minister’s Brexit strategy ahead of a crucial EU summit, which European Council president Donald Tusk confirmed would take place on November 25, “if nothing extraordinary happens”.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Mr Rees-Mogg said he expected sufficient letters to be submitted to force Mrs May to fight for her position, but declined to say how soon.
If Mrs May was ousted as leader, a contest to choose a successor could be completed “not in months, but weeks”, he said.
He refused to name his preferred successor, but he identified Mr Raab, Ms McVey, Boris Johnson, David Davis and Ms Mordaunt as potential candidates.
“This is nothing to do with the ambition of Brexiteers,” he said. “It is everything to do with the ambition of Brexit for this country.”
Labour said the Government was “falling apart before our eyes”, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said Mrs May “appears to be in denial”.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Raab said he could not accept “an indefinite backstop arrangement” for the Irish border, included in the withdrawal agreement.
He said: “No democratic nation has ever signed up to be bound by such an extensive regime, imposed externally without any democratic control over the laws to be applied, nor the ability to decide to exit the arrangement.”
Ms McVey, who was promoted to the Cabinet by Mrs May in January, was reported to have been close to tears as she tried to force a vote on the Brexit deal in Wednesday’s Cabinet.
In her letter to the PM, the Tatton MP said: “We have gone from no deal is better than a bad deal, to any deal is better than no deal.
“I cannot defend this, and I cannot vote for this deal. I could not look my constituents in the eye were I to do that.”
JACOB Rees-Mogg has asked Theresa May whether he should help trigger a leadership challenge as MPs heard Tory opposition to the Brexit deal was “going up by the hour”.
The leading Tory Eurosceptic highlighted areas of the deal where he said the “honourable” Prime Minister had reneged on promises over leaving the customs union, maintaining the internal integrity of the UK and leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
Speaking in the Commons, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) – of committed Brexiteers – Mr Rees-Mogg added: “As what my right honourable friend says and what my right honourable friend does no longer match, should I not write to my right honourable friend the member for Altrincham and Sale West?”
This was a reference to Sir Graham Brady MP, the chairman of the Tory 1922 Committee, to whom MPs must write to express no confidence in a leader in order to trigger a challenge.
Mrs May replied that “some difficult choices have had to be made” to avoid a hard border on Ireland, adding: “It is not only our intention, but we will be working to ensure that protocol does not have to be put into place.”
Tory divisions further burst into the open when former minister Mark Francois urged Mrs May to “accept the political reality of the situation” as he noted more than 80 Conservative colleagues opposed her deal.
Sir Nicholas Soames, a Tory former minister, could be heard saying “sit down” as Mr Francois told the Commons: “Prime Minister, the whole House accepts that you have done your best.
“But the Labour Party has made plain today that they will vote against this deal, the SNP will vote against it, the Liberals will vote against it, the DUP will vote against it – our key ally in this place will vote against it, over 80 Tory backbenchers – well, it’s 84 now and it’s going up by the hour – will vote against it.
“It is therefore mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons.”
Mr Francois added the deal was “dead on arrival” before the PM made her speech, adding: “I plead with you to accept the political reality of the situation you now face.”
Tory Remainer Anna Soubry earlier asked Mrs May to put a second referendum back on the table because the promises made during the first referendum “can’t be delivered upon”.
She said: “We face three choices. We either accept this agreement – and I respectfully suggest there is now no majority in this House for it – or we accept no deal – which would be profoundly irresponsible and catastrophic for this country.
“Or we have no Brexit. We remain in the EU, the best deal that we have with the EU, and on that basis would she undertake not to rule out taking this back to the British people and having a People’s Vote?”
Mrs May rejected the notion. Conservative former education secretary and Remain supporter Justine Greening earlier said she did not believe the draft deal was good for Britain’s “long-term future”.
She told the Commons: “The Prime Minister said this is in the national interest, so why not allow people in our nation to have their say now? If it was good enough before, why isn’t it good enough now?”
Labour former minister Chris Leslie, a prominent Remainer, said: “It is quite clear, we’ve been going for about an hour now, not a single honourable or right honourable member has supported the plans that the Prime Minister has set out. So it’s quite clear she cannot command the House of Commons on these proposals.”
He said he was tempted to ask Tory MPs to put their hands up if they support the PM, but no hands were raised.
Tory Brexiteer Sir William Cash (Stone) said the 585 pages of the draft deal were a “testament to broken promises, failed negotiations and abject capitulation to the EU”.
“What if the Brexit Secretary is right and his devastating resignation letter is correct and we are likely to be locked permanently in a backstop arrangement?
“Can she promise me that whatever happens in this vote she will deliver Brexit at the end of March?”
Brecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies, a member of the ERG, said: “I hold genuine concerns over what has been mentioned in the press, and I believe that now is not the time to make rash decisions... Until I have read through the document in detail and looked at what genuine alternatives we have I will not be rushed into a decision.
“Whilst I agree that a bad deal is worse than a no deal, we need to look at what happens next if this deal does not go through Parliament. Many MPs are concerned that if this does not have sufficient support it could potentially lead to a second referendum, Jeremy Corbyn in power and attempts to keep us in the EU...
“I am a committed lifelong Eurosceptic and always have been. However, even if the majority of the country does share this view unfortunately the majority of the House of Commons does not and we do have to be very careful how we proceed at this sensitive juncture.”
David Davies, MP for Monmouthshire, tweeted: “Only letters I am writing are for constituents.”
JEREMY Corbyn has hit out at Theresa May’s “leap-in-thedark” draft Brexit deal and warned it cannot be put to Parliament.
The Labour leader also said the government is in “chaos” after describing the draft withdrawal agreement and the outline political declaration as a “huge and damaging failure”.
Replying to the Prime Minister’s Brexit update, Mr Corbyn told the Commons: “After two years of bungled negotiations the government has produced a botched deal that breaches the Prime Minister’s own red lines and does not meet our six tests.
“The government is in chaos. Their deal risks leaving the country in an indefinite halfway house without a real say.
“When even the last Brexit Secretary, who theoretically at least negotiated the deal, says, ‘I cannot support the proposed deal’, what faith does that give anyone else in this place or in this country?
“The government simply cannot put to Parliament this half-baked deal that both the Brexit Secretary and his predecessor have rejected.
“No deal is not a real option and the government has not seriously prepared for it.”
Mr Corbyn went on: “The withdrawal agreement is a leap in the dark – an ill-defined deal by a neverdefined date.”
The Labour leader told MPs that the backstop “insurance policy”, as Mrs May put it, would create a “defacto border down the Irish Sea”.
He said: “In fact, the list of EU measures that continue to apply to the UK in respect of Northern Ireland runs to 68 pages of the agreement, this affects VAT declarations and rules of origin checks.”
Mr Corbyn also said it was “clear the Prime Minister’s red line regarding jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice had also been torn up”.
He said: “By 2021 under the Prime Minister’s plan, we will either be in a backstop or still in transition.
“It is utterly far-fetched for the Prime Minister to say this plan means we take control over our laws, money and borders.”
Mrs May ploughed on with her response to Mr Corbyn, despite a shout of “resign” from the Labour benches, giving only a wry smile of acknowledgement.
She said: “He is wrong in saying we will have not dealt with the issue of the border down the Irish Sea. We have dealt with that.
“It took some considerable time to persuade the EU to move from its proposal from a Northern Irelandonly customs territory to a UK-wide
territory but we have achieved that.”
Mrs May questioned whether Mr Corbyn had read the same document, listing what she said were his errors.
“I’m really not sure what document he read,” she said. “There is indeed a choice before members of this House – it is a choice of whether or not we go ahead with a deal that does deliver on the vote, while protecting jobs, while protecting our security and while protecting our Union.”
Mrs May later acknowledged the mechanism for withdrawing from the Irish border backstop “does require mutual consent, it is for both sides to agree that”.