Ministers call on May to postpone vote on Brexit deal
MINISTERS are urging Theresa May to postpone next week’s crunch Brexit vote to allow more time to put together a package to sweeten the deal.
The Prime Minister is considering a range of measures designed to make the Irish ‘backstop’ more palatable to her mutinous backbenchers.
Proposals include placing a parliamentary ‘lock’ on the backstop, which would give MPs the final say over whether to enter an arrangement which critics fear could keep the UK trapped in the customs union indefinitely.
Downing Street is also considering a new law that would guarantee there could be no divergence of rules between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK during any backstop period.
The measures could be included in a Government amendment to Tuesday’s Commons vote on Mrs May’s deal.
But some senior Tories believe she is running out of time to persuade Eurosceptic Tories and Democratic Unionists ahead of the vote. The development came as:
Ministers published the Attorney General’s full legal advice on Mrs May’s deal after losing a dramatic Commons vote on Tuesday in which the Government was found to be in ‘contempt of Parliament’;
Mrs May’s partners in the DUP accused her of ‘bad faith’ and vowed to vote against the deal after the legal advice warned there would need to be new checks on some goods travelling from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK;
Brexiteers claimed the DUP’s continued support for the Government was now conditional on the Brexit deal being defeated;
Sources said the EU is prepared to offer Mrs May a lifeline by extending Article 50 beyond the UK’s planned departure date of March 29 next year if her Brexit deal is voted down by MPs, in order to avoid a no-deal Brexit;
Downing Street insisted Mrs May would not seek to delay the departure, saying ‘she has been very clear we are not extending Article 50’;
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox warned MPs that Remainers in Parliament ‘may try to steal Brexit from the British people’;
Chancellor Philip Hammond warned against leaving without a deal, saying it would take at least two years to prepare the port of Dover, which handles the bulk of the UK’s trade with Europe.
At least three Cabinet minis- ters are said to have directly urged the Prime Minister to agree a short postponement.
One said: ‘ There are ways this can be fixed and people have started looking at them.
‘We need to be creative and we need to get the DUP back on board. It can be done, but it can’t be done before next Tuesday. We need to pull the vote or we risk losing on a scale that makes the whole thing impossible to salvage.’
Another senior Tory said: ‘Marching people into the valley of death next Tuesday is a mistake. There will be a monumental effort to change people’s minds this weekend.
‘But if that does not work then it’s not a bad idea to allow a little more time for tempers to cool.’
Tory chief whip Julian Smith is also said to be worried about pressing ahead with a vote if it seems certain the Government will be defeated.
But a senior Tory source indicated Mrs May was not currently minded to delay, adding: ‘ Delaying things might even make it worse.’
Mrs May has spent much of the last few days lobbying small groups of Tory MPs to back her deal. More than 100 have voiced doubts, mostly focused on the backstop.
The plan is designed to ensure there is no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland if trade talks stall.
But it would leave all of the UK in the customs union. And the Government’s legal advice is that there would be no unilateral way out.
One idea is to give MPs a vote on whether to allow the process to go ahead if talks fail to produce an alternative.
Tory Eurosceptic John Baron said the plan did not go far enough, adding: ‘A parliamentary lock would bind us but would not bind the EU. I could not support it.’
Downing Street refused to say whether the idea would be taken up, but confirmed Mrs May was in ‘listening mode’.
But No 10 said she would not ask the EU to reopen the Brexit deal when she travels to Brussels next week, warning it could make things ‘worse’.
‘Allow time for tempers to cool’