24 HOURS TO SAVE BREXIT
May’s race against the clock to halt blocking of EU exit
THERESA May will issue a stark warning today that Brexit risks being derailed as she races against the clock to save her EU divorce deal.
The Prime Minister will head to Leave-supporting heartlands to make a passionate plea for Tory rebels to get behind her plan or face Britain’s departure being blocked.
In the final hours before tomorrow’s crucial vote on the withdrawal agreement she struck with Brussels, Mrs May will warn that no Brexit is now more likely than leaving with no deal.
She will say that failing to deliver on the EU referendum result will cause “catastrophic harm” and appealed to MPs of all parties to “consider the consequences”.
But Mrs May is expected to face one of the largest government rebellions in the history of
the Commons as Conservative opposition showed little sign of melting away.
Mrs May will admit she believes it is now more likely MPs will block Brexit than allow Britain to leave without a deal.
Mrs May is expected to tell factory workers in Leave-supporting Stoke-on-Trent: “There are some in Westminster who would wish to delay or even stop Brexit and who will use every device available to them to do so. I ask MPs to consider the consequences of their actions on the faith of the British people in our democracy.
“Imagine if an anti-devolution House of Commons had said to the people of Scotland or Wales that, despite voting in favour of a devolved legislature, Parliament knew better and would overrule them. Or else force them to vote again.
“What if we found ourselves in a situation where Parliament tried to take the UK out of the EU in opposition to a Remain vote?
“People’s faith in the democratic process and their politicians would suffer catastrophic harm. We all have a duty to implement the result of the referendum.”
Senior EU officials revealed last night that they are devising plans for Britain’s March 29 departure to be put back to at least July because they do not believe she will get her deal through Parliament.
Mrs May will go on to tell voters that on the rare occasions when Parliament has put a question directly to the British people, it had always been understood that their response carried “a profound significance”.
She will say: “When the people of Wales voted by a margin of 0.3 per cent, on a turnout of just over 50 per cent, to endorse the creation of the Welsh Assembly, that result was accepted by both sides and the popular legitimacy of that institution has never seriously been questioned.
“Parliament understood this fact when it voted overwhelmingly to trigger Article 50. And both major parties did so too when they stood on election manifestos in 2017 that pledged to honour the result of the referendum.”
Last night four Tory Brexiteers said they would back the withdrawal agreement tomorrow. Sir Edward Leigh said it was “inconceivable” Parliament would allow the UK to leave without an exit agreement and “therefore my message to my fellow Brexit-supporting MPs is you are playing with fire if you vote down this deal in the hope of something better”.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said while he had “deep misgivings” about many aspects of the deal, it would be a “framework” to ensure the UK leaves the EU on March 29.
Former minister Andrew Murrison and MP Caroline Johnson feared that Remainers would go to any length to try to stop Brexit.
However, Mrs May still faces the prospect of more than 100 of her own MPs voting against her.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said that if the Government pursued a no-deal, Parliament would “take control” to “insist that we pursue the option of no Brexit”.
Former Tory prime minister Sir John Major insisted that revoking Article 50, that takes Britain out of the EU, was the “only sensible course”. He said the benefits of a no-deal Brexit were “close to zero”, adding: “Every single household, rich or poor, would be worse off for many years to come.
“Jumping off a cliff has never had a happy ending.”
An EU leaders’ summit to push back Brexit day is expected to be convened by European Council president Donald Tusk once a UK request is received. An EU official said: “Should the Prime Minister survive and inform us that she needs more time to win round Parliament to a deal, a technical extension up to July will be offered.”
Economic forecasters also predict Britain is now unlikely to leave on March 29. The Economist Intelligence Unit says the probability of a no-deal exit is five per cent and a second referendum 30 per cent.
Mrs May’s deal has a 40 per cent chance of eventually being approved by Parliament, its analysts said.
THE coup against Brexit is approaching its ugly climax. The prospect of national independence and the very existence of our democracy are in peril, thanks to the machinations of the pro-EU brigade.
As the Commons prepares for tomorrow night’s vote on the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement, a large section of the political elite plans to exploit the turmoil at Westminster and overturn the result of the 2016 referendum.
Such a step would be an outrage. Parliament is meant to implement the wishes of the people, not subvert them. It is a bitter irony that the electorate backed our freedom from Brussels, yet, in its undemocratic, arrogant contempt for that decision, Westminster increasingly resembles the unaccountable Brussels empire.
The anti-Brexit conspiracy is already well under way in the Commons. Its key players like to pose as the champions of Parliamentary sovereignty, but their real agenda is continued submission to EU rule.
Last week, with the shameless connivance of the partisan Speaker John Bercow, who ignored precedent and the advice of his clerks, these schemers were able to pass a crucial amendment that would drastically limit the Prime Minister’s scope for action if she is beaten tomorrow. Now they want to go far further in their plot to reverse Brexit.
According to credible reports at the weekend, the Remainers aim to use May’s likely defeat to change the Commons rules so that MPs, not the Government, will be in control of all Brexit business. In practice, this could mean the triumph of the pro-EU cause in Parliament, given that Remainvoting MPs make up the majority of the chamber.
AS a result, their defiance of the British public will drastically worsen. Intoxicated with their own power, the MPs could vote for a second referendum or even the repeal of Article 50, thereby immediately ending the withdrawal process.
Far from feeling any embarrassment at these antics, leading Remainers are gleeful. Yesterday on the BBC, Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Vince Cable predicted that, in the event of May’s defeat, “Parliament will take control of this process and will insist that we pursue the option of no Brexit”. In the same vein, ex-premier Sir John Major grandly declared that “the only sensible course now is for the Government to revoke Article 50 and suspend any decision on departure”.
The idea of leaving without a deal would be “morally reprehensible”, he intoned. This is the man who negotiated the Maastricht folly, wanted to keep Britain in the destructive ERM, and presided over the Tories’ worst defeat in modern times.
The drive to thwart Brexit is further fuelled by the Labour Party, whose cynical goal under Jeremy Corbyn is simply to foment as much chaos as possible, so that a general election will have to be held in the wake of the Conservative Government’s collapse. Some Cabinet Ministers are helping in this task, by threatening to resign if there is no deal with the EU.
But the Prime Minister has also played a central role in this deepening crisis. For all her hard work, she has neither established confidence among her Brexit allies, nor built a political consensus in support of her strategy. A poor communicator, she has failed to sell her case, as she proved in the 2017 General Election when she squandered the Conservatives’ workable majority.
E‘A no-deal will not plunge us into chaos’
VEN now, with her premiership on the brink, she is still unable to trust or consult. One normally sympathetic colleague, despairing of her sphinx-like reluctance to set out any alternative in the event of defeat, said: “I wanted to grab her and say, ‘What the hell do you want?’”
May’s greatest failure, however, lies in her botched Withdrawal Agreement. Having allowed Brussels to dictate the terms and timetable, she then reached a deal which potentially leaves Britain shackled to EU rule indefinitely. At the weekend, one civil servant savaged the agreement as an attempt to keep “Britain in chains” and “to reverse a damning popular vote of discontent with the European Project”.
Similarly, the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove said the deal “threatens national security” because it undermines Britain’s global intelligence relationships.
Tellingly, the Government seeks to push the agreement through, not by extolling its merits, but by peddling lurid scare stories about a no-deal departure. We are told that Armageddon awaits if Britain “crashes out”. But there is no evidence to support this hysterical political blackmail.
We heard the same doommongering from Project Fear, whose grim forecasts never materialised. Ours is an advanced country, the fifth largest economy in the world. There might be some temporary disruption, but we will not be plunged into chaos through a no-deal withdrawal.
Planes will not be grounded, nor food supplies run short. Indeed, there would be many advantages to a clean break, such as an end to lavish payments to the EU, the ability to reach our own international trade deals, and the right to set our own tariffs.
Shroud-waving about nodeal is a form of defeatism. The Government should have more faith in our country and prepare for this eventuality, instead of contemplating a surrender to the undemocratic Remainers.