REMAINERS’ COUP
Theresa May faced the threat of being held to ransom over Brexit last night after ruth Davidson warned her to water down her strategy.
The scottish Tory leader ordered the Prime Minister to scrap her plan for a ‘Tory Brexit’ and reach out to remainers – and even other parties – for a more consensual approach.
Miss Davidson’s scottish Conservatives won an extra 12 seats in Thursday’s election, meaning she is in a powerful position when it comes to any Parliamentary votes on the issue. her MPs could be the difference between victory and defeat.
as Tory divisions deepened, there were growing suggestions of a plot by pro- remain Tories to scupper Mrs May’s plan for a full-throated Brexit that would see the UK leave the single market, the customs union and the european Court of Justice.
Cabinet ministers opposed to a hard Brexit have been nicknamed the ‘sensibles’, according to the London evening standard, which is edited by former chancellor George Osborne.
some are said to be in talks with Labour MPs to secure cross-party backing for a soft Brexit. It is claimed they have secretly discussed how to force Mrs May to make concessions on immigration, the customs union and the single market.
The idea of a cross-party Brexit Commission has been raised which would attempt to create common ground between the parties and ensure an orderly withdrawal from the EU.
Labour is expected to use the talks as leverage to demand an end to the public sector pay freeze among a series of concessions in next week’s Queen’s speech at the state Opening of Parliament, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Writing for the newspaper, the newly appointed environment secretary, Michael Gove, said it was vital the Government can ‘achieve a deal that can command the widest possible support’. an unnamed senior Tory minister was quoted as saying that the PM’s Brexit strategy was no longer just for the Government, but a ‘question for Parliament’.
Meanwhile, it emerged that Mrs May’s new chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, had blamed Brexit for the Conservative Party’s failure to win an overall majority in the aftermath of election. he appeared to signal he would push for a change in approach by saying that the party must ensure that remainers continued ‘supporting our party’.
The Prime Minister faces a battle to keep the party together over the issue, with David Davis insisting yesterday that there would be no change in strategy.
after meeting Mrs May in Downing street yesterday, Miss Davidson boasted about how she had instructed Mrs May to soften her stance on Brexit. she told BBC News: ‘I wanted to speak to her about what this election taught us as a party. It taught us that the country want us to be in government, but they do not want us to have a majority and that means we have to work with others on the big issues of the day, and that for me includes Brexit.
‘We do have to make sure that we invite other people in now. This is not just going to be a Tory Brexit, this is going to have to involve the whole country.’
Nicola sturgeon claimed plans for a hard Brexit were ‘dead in the water’. The scottish First Minister said: ‘The approach to Brexit…has to change in light of this election.
‘The Prime Minister has got to include more people in this process, different parties, all of the nations of the UK. and I think it must be an approach that starts with a determination to retain our place in the single market, because that’s right for jobs and investment.’
But Brexit secretary secretary David Davis yesterday insisted the country’s exit from the EU would not be blown off course. The EU has made clear ‘you cannot stay in the single market and have control of your borders’, and ‘there’s no sign of them changing their position’, he said.
he told BBC radio 4’s Today programme: ‘something like 80 per cent of the British people voted for the parties that have accepted that we have to leave the EU because
‘Take back control of our borders’
that is what the british people decided. The parties that wanted to reverse that decision, the Liberals and the SNP have had a poor outcome.
‘The reason for leaving the single market is because we want to take back control of our borders.’ Mr Davis said formal brexit talks would begin next week, but may not start on Monday as planned.
Last night Mrs May’s new chief of staff Mr barwell signalled that he will push for a change in approach on brexit. In an interview with BBC Panorama, conducted in the brief period between him losing his seat and replacing Mrs May’s aides Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill on saturday, Mr barwell identified the reasons why he had lost his Croydon Central seat. He said: ‘We do need to make sure that people that are Conservative- minded that voted remain in the referendum are happy to continue supporting our party.’
Mrs May’s official spokesman yesterday said the Prime Minister remained committed to securing ‘the best possible deal for the whole of the UK’.