Delay vote or lose your job, Tory MPs tell May
Calls for new poll as 100 in her party oppose deal
A PROMINENT Tory MP last night warned Theresa May to delay next week’s crunch Brexit vote or risk losing her job.
In a rare public intervention, Graham Brady, the powerful chairman of the 1922 Committee of the party’s backbench MPs, said there was ‘no point in ploughing ahead and losing the vote heavily’.
At a meeting of key Cabinet ministers in Downing Street yesterday, Mrs May was repeatedly urged to delay the vote rather than see her plans go down in flames.
More than 100 Tory MPs have voiced opposition to the deal in recent weeks.
One source at yesterday’s meeting said there was ‘general agreement that we can’t lose a vote by 200’. Another voiced concern that Mrs may was ‘just not listening to reason’.
And while Downing Street
insisted that the vote would go ahead as planned next Tuesday, a Tory source said a final decision on whether to press ahead could be taken as late as Monday evening.
Chief Whip Julian Smith is said to be ‘very uncomfortable’ about the idea of calling a vote if it is clear the government is going to
suffer a landslide defeat. The development came as:
Plans for a televised Brexit debate between Mrs May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were abandoned after the two sides were unable to agree on the format;
And Mr Corbyn dropped his heaviest hint yet that he is ready to back the growing calls for a second referendum on Brexit if the British prime minister’s deal is defeated;
Leaked Tory polling revealed dozens of Conservative MPs risk losing their seats if they help to block Mrs May’s deal;
The European Court of Justice said it would fast-track a ruling on whether the British government can unilaterally cancel Brexit, and deliver its verdict on Monday;
A government report warned the UK had to be ready for the return of tens of thousands of British ex-pats in the event of a no-deal Brexit;
ITV released footage of Brexiteer MP Philip Davies telling the Chief Whip there were no circumstances under which he would vote for the deal while the backstop remained.
However, as the man in charge of the leadership rules, Graham Brady is the only one who knows if MPs are about to hit the 48 letters needed to trigger a vote of confidence in Mrs May.