Leadership challenge looms as May’s deal is branded a ‘betrayal’
FURIOUS Tory MPs yesterday branded Theresa May’s Brexit deal a dangerous betrayal that would damage the country and lose her the support of millions of voters.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage described her as “not just the worst prime minister I’ve ever seen but perhaps the most dishonest one as well”.
The Prime Minister insisted the agreement would allow Britain to “take back control of our borders, our laws and our money”.
But the proposals left many of her MPs incensed and plunged her premiership into fresh jeopardy.
The DUP ramped up the pressure on the PM with warnings that the party, which provides crucial parliamentary support for her government, is poised to vote against the plan.
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis issued a stark warning about the impact the deal would have.
He said: “This deal would be a betrayal of the referendum result and have irreversible consequences for years to come.”
Conservative Peter Bone warned Mrs May she faces losing the support of many Tory MPs and voters.
Tackling her directly during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, he said: “If the media reports about the EU agreement are in any way accurate, you will not be delivering the Brexit people voted for and today you will lose the support of many Conservative MPs and millions of voters across the country.”
Fear
Senior Conservatives including Boris Johnson and Jacob ReesMogg urged ministers to reject the proposed agreement, which they fear could lock Britain in the EU’s customs union indefinitely, blocking its ability to strike new trade deals elsewhere.
In a letter to Conservative MPs, European Research Group chairman Mr Rees-Mogg said they should not support the deal.
“The proposals released do not match the expectations set out in Theresa May’s Lancaster House speech,” he said.
“The proposed agreement will see the UK hand over £39billion to the EU for little or nothing in return,” he said. The deal is “unacceptable to Unionists”, will “lock us into an EU customs union and EU laws” and is “profoundly undemocratic”.
“For these reasons I cannot support the proposed agreement in Parliament and would hope that Conservative MPs would do likewise,” he said.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who has previously called for Mrs May’s removal as leader, said: “The Cabinet backing this deal is the quickest route to a leadership election. Cabinet members know this and for the more ambitious, it can’t come quick enough.”
Scotland Secretary David Mundell made clear he had concerns about the direction Brexit could take. He was among the 13 Conservative MPs north of the border to sign a joint letter warning the Prime Minister they could not support a deal that failed to restore “complete control and full sovereignty” over the UK’s fishing waters.
They said: “We could not support an agreement with the EU that would prevent the UK from independently negotiating access and quota shares...We also cannot stay in the Common Fisheries Policy after December 2020.”
Conservative Andrew Bridgen insisted the exit agreement was a “danger” to the country and said he expected a leadership challenge “imminently”.
“I’m deeply unhappy,” he said. “These proposals, if implemented, are a danger to the Government, the Conservative party, our country and our democracy. I do honestly think that dissatisfaction is so high that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an imminent vote of confidence in the Prime Minister.”
Protesters from the Leave Means Leave campaign gathered near Downing Street, calling for the Government to “ditch the deal”.
Its co-chairman, John Longworth, said Mrs May’s plan was the “worst deal in history”, adding: “It doesn’t fulfil the Brexit vote, will effectively hamper any benefits of Brexit flowing to the economy and will make Britain an effective colony.”
After last year’s general election, the DUP signed up to a pact agreeing to support Mrs May’s government, including legislation that delivers Brexit.
But the party has been dismayed by the way the exit deal has developed and fear it puts the future of the Union at risk.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said she would not back a deal that left Northern Ireland “adrift in the future” and warned there would be “consequences” for Mrs May if she put forward proposals that threatened to break up the United Kingdom.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the draft Brexit plan left Britain handing over cash as part of the divorce settlement, while failing to secure anything in return. “We’re giving away in excess of £40billion in return for precisely nothing,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“Trapped still inside the European Union’s rule book, continuing free movement of people, continuing with a foreign court having a say over our own country. Nothing has been achieved other than giving away a huge sum of money.”
He said Mrs May was “not just the worst prime minister I’ve ever seen but perhaps the most dishonest one as well”.
Resign
“Get rid of her,” he urged. “Let’s get somebody else. Let’s come back to the EU and say, ‘Look, let’s have a simple free trade deal or we are leaving on World Trade Organisation terms’. And do you know what? They’ll bite our arms off.”
Mr Farage later tweeted: “Any Cabinet member who is a genuine Brexiteer must now resign or never be trusted again.”
Tory former trade secretary Lord Lilley said taxpayers would save £40billion if the exit deal was rejected and insisted trading on World Trade Organisation terms was not something to be frightened of.
He said: “I say that not just because I helped to negotiate the establishment of the WTO, but because our trade with countries with whom we trade on WTO terms has grown three times as rapidly as our trade with the single market since it was established.”