IT’S BACK TO SQUARE ONE!
Commons fails to agree any plan AGAIN ++ Soft Brexit MP quits Tories ++ Election risk rises ++ Cabinet chief’s leaked letter warns of No Deal crisis
MPs deepened the political crisis last night by again rejecting every Brexit option.
With just 11 days until the UK is due to leave the EU, the Commons failed to find a majority for any of the alternatives to the Prime Minister’s withdrawal plan.
MPs rejected staying in the customs union or the single market, as well as holding a second referendum or cancelling Brexit altogether.
Theresa May will this morning gather her ministers for a crunch five-hour Cabinet meeting. Brexiteer ministers have threatened to quit if she moves toward a soft Brexit. Others say they will resign if she pursues No Deal.
A highly-placed source described today’s gathering as ‘the mother of all Cabinet meetings’, adding: ‘They have got some very, very big decisions to take.’
Last night’s deadlock, which saw former Tory minister Nick Boles cross the floor of the House, could breathe life into Mrs May’s plan after three defeats. The prospect of a general election or a No Deal departure also rose.
The Mail yesterday saw leaked extracts of a bombshell letter from Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill warning ministers how disastrous No Deal could be. It warned the Cabinet
that No Deal would make Britain ‘less safe’, lead to a recession, a hike in food prices and even risk the breakup of the kingdom.
After last night’s dramatic votes, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay called on MPs to back the Prime Minister’s plan, holding out the prospect that Britain could still avoid taking part in European elections in May.
He told MPs: ‘The result of the House’s decision not to approve the withdrawal agreement is that the default legal position is that the UK will leave the EU in just 11 days’ time.
‘This House has rejected leaving without a deal just as it has rejected not leaving at all. Therefore the only option is to find a way through that allows us to leave with a deal.’
Immediately afterward, Mr Boles, who had put forward plans for a soft Brexit compromise, dramatically quit the Tories in the Commons chamber.
Appearing almost to be in tears, he said: ‘I have given everything to an attempt to find a compromise that can take this country out of the European Union while maintaining our economic strength and political cohesion. I accept I have failed, I have failed chiefly because my party refuses to compromise. I regret therefore to announce that I can no longer sit for this party.’ On another extraordinary day: Tory Chief Whip Julian Smith hit out at his Cabinet colleagues for undermining the Prime Minister, branding them the most ‘ill- disciplined in British political history’;
David Lidington, the de facto deputy prime minister, wrote to the Electoral Commission instructing it to prepare for the possibility of European elections;
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson repeatedly refused to rule out mounting a leadership bid – leading to speculation he could be in the running to replace Mrs May;
A top executive at German engineer Siemens warned that Brexit had made Britain a ‘laughing stock’ and is destroying the country’s reputation for economic competence;
Police arrested 12 people on suspicion of outraging public decency after climate change activists stripped off to stage a protest in the Commons gallery while MPs debated.
All four options put to MPs were last night rejected.
The Common Market 2.0 proposal, put forward by Mr Boles, was defeated by 21 votes. It proposed remaining in the single market and a customs union, which would have meant continued freedom of movement and payments to the EU.
A plan to stay in the custom union put forward by Tory former Cabinet minister Ken Clarke was narrowly defeated by three votes.
Labour backbenchers Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson’s demand for a referendum on any deal passed by Parliament lost by 12 votes. SNP MP Joanna Cherry’s call for Brexit to be cancelled if the UK appeared to be on course to crash out of the EU without a deal missed out by