A DAY OF REBELLION AND RESIGNATIONS
MAY’S POSITION AS LEADER HANGS ON A THREAD AS RIVALS, COALITION ALLIES REJECT BREXIT PLAN
Theresa May’s premiership was hanging by a thread Thursday night as her own MPs called on her to “stand aside” after a devastating day of ministerial resignations over her Brexit plan.
The prime minister insisted that she would “see this through” and fight any attempt to oust her, as she said she was still able to bear the “heavy responsibility” of her office.
However, her position looked increasingly precarious as leading pro-Brexit lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said he had “no confidence” in May, as he and other Tory MPs formally called for a vote on her leadership, which could come as early as Monday.
The crisis threatens not only to unseat the prime minister, but also to send the U.K. hurtling toward the EU exit without a plan.
The hard-won agreement with the EU, reached Wednesday, has infuriated pro-Brexit members of May’s divided Conservative Party.
They say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the bloc, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to EU rules it has no say in making.
May insisted that Brexit meant making “the right choices, not the easy ones” and urged lawmakers to support the deal “in the national interest.”
But the day began with resignations and recriminations. Dominic Raab dramatically quit as Brexit secretary, saying he could not support the deal.
Esther McVey also resigned as work and pensions secretary as a total of seven ministers and senior MPs quit their posts.
Michael Gove, the environment secretary, was said to be considering his future Thursday night after apparently turning down an offer to become Raab’s replacement.
A second day of high-profile resignations Friday could make May’s position untenable.
The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the Conservative Party’s deal with the Democratic Unionist Party — upon which May relies for her majority — is over unless May is replaced with a new leader.
Sources close to DUP Leader Arlene Foster confirmed Thursday night that the party would vote down the Withdrawal Agreement in Parliament, adding that its support now “depended on who the leader of the Conservative Party is.”
At a press conference in Downing Street, May was asked if she would fight any confidence vote. She replied: “Am I going to see this through? Yes.”
She said: “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.”
Raab, who had been expected to travel to Brussels Thursday for a handshake on the deal, said in his resignation letter he could not accept “an indefinite backstop arrangement” for the Irish border.
McVey 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.”
During a tumultuous three-hour interrogation by MPs in the Commons, the scale of the task facing May if she is to get her Brexit deal through Parliament became clear, as Tory and DUP MPs lined up to berate the prime minister’s proposal.
Rees-Mogg said the draft Brexit deal “has turned out to be worse than anticipated,” and would keep Britain in a customs union with the EU, potentially for an indefinite period.
He called on the Conservative Party to ditch May and
I BELIEVE WITH EVERY FIBRE OF MY BEING THAT THE COURSE I HAVE SET OUT IS THE RIGHT ONE.
replace her with a Leave supporter, citing Boris Johnson, David Davis, Raab and McVey as potential successors.
He ruled himself out of the running, saying: “I’m not offering my name as leader. This is nothing to do with me.”
Downing Street is now on alert for a no-confidence vote among Tory MPs within days, after other MPs rowed in behind Rees-Mogg by submitting letters calling for a vote.
Tory Party rules state a vote must be held “as soon as possible” if 15 per cent of the Parliamentary party — 48 MPs — submit letters. It means a vote could be held as soon as Monday if the threshold is crossed Friday.
Business groups have warned that if there is no deal by next month, companies will have to enact contingency plans that could include cutting jobs, stockpiling goods, and relocating production overseas. May and her supporters say the alternatives to her deal — leaving the bloc next March without a deal or a second vote on Brexit — are not realistic options.
If the agreement was abandoned, “nobody can know for sure the consequences that will follow,” May said. “It would be to take a path of deep and grave uncertainty when the British people just want us to get on with it.”
The pound plunged after the resignations, losing 1.8 per cent of its value against the dollar and the euro.