BREXIT IN CRISIS
Almost 100 of them vote against move to put EU departure off to June 30
Theresa May faced a mass rebellion by Tory MPs last night on a motion to delay Brexit to June 30 amid claims the UK was being turned into a ‘laughing stock’.
Ninety- seven backbench Tories voted against the motion, including former Brexit secretary Dominic raab and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson.
and it came as the Prime Minister also faced open revolt in the Cabinet with ministers andrea Leadsom and Liam Fox publicly challenging her Brexit strategy.
In the Commons, and despite a threeline whip, almost 80 Tories were absent including several ministers, leaving just 131 to vote in favour of the motion.
No10 said there would be no disciplining of MPs who did not follow the party line. The Commons approved the motion on the extension request by 420 votes to 110, a majority of 310.
Former education minister Tim Loughton attacked ‘saboteurs’ on both sides for trying to ‘hamstring’ the Prime Minister.
he urged French president emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor angela Merkel to veto an extension and ‘put us out of our misery now’. ‘If the eU elections go ahead, it is highly likely the UK will elect an army of Nigel Farage mini-me’s, who I am afraid will wreak havoc with the european Parliament and wreck your calculations about the balance of power within the eU.’
Tory MP anne Main said the UK was becoming a ‘ laughing stock’ and called it ‘appalling that we may be seeking an extension with no real sense of purpose’.
and Brexiteer Labour MP Kate hoey added: ‘It does seem really humiliating for this country to have our Prime Minister going over to the european Union to literally beg for an extension. What is this saying about our country?’
as Mrs May flew to Berlin for talks yesterday, Commons Leader Mrs Leadsom urged her to ask Mrs Merkel to reopen the Withdrawal agreement forged last November.
even though the Prime Minister has long given up attempts at changes as the eU has repeatedly ruled them out, Mrs Leadsom raised the prospect she should still be pushing for them.
speaking outside her London home, she told ITV News: ‘The Prime Minister is off to see angela Merkel today and it would be fantastic if angela Merkel will try to support a proper UK Brexit by agreeing to reopen the Withdrawal agreement.
‘There have been rumours over the weekend some senior members of the German government would be willing to do that in order to get Theresa May’s deal over the line.
‘as the person with the responsibility to get the legislation through, if we get the Prime Minister’s deal over the line because the eU has decided to support measures on the backstop, that would be the best possible outcome.’
But Mrs May’s official spokesman dismissed the idea, telling reporters: ‘any plan going forward would be based on the current Withdrawal agreement.’
There were also signs of resistance in the Cabinet to compromise with Labour, with International Trade secretary Mr Fox warning that a customs union would leave the UK ‘stuck in the worst of both worlds’.
In a four-page letter to the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, he explained how the scenario would see the UK ‘on the menu’ without any control. he said: ‘We would be stuck in the worst of both worlds, not only unable to set our own international trade policy, but subject, without representation, to the policy of an entity over which MPs would have no democratic control.’
he went on: ‘In such a scenario the UK would have a new role in the global trading system – we ourselves would be traded. as the famous saying in Brussels goes, if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.’
DUP party leader arlene Foster and Westminster leader Nigel Dodds both accused Mrs May of ‘begging’ european leaders for help to break the impasse. ‘The talks between the Prime Minister and the leaders of France and Germany is humiliating and embarrassing for the UK,’ Mr Dodds said last night. ‘The problems the Prime Minister is attempting to solve were not created by the decision to leave the eU, rather the ineffective negotiations by the Prime Minister to implement that decision.’
earlier, Mrs Foster questioned Mrs May’s leadership qualities. ‘ she needed to be strong, she needed to show leadership, and I’m sorry to say that hasn’t been evident in these past couple of months,’ she told the BBC.
‘No real sense of purpose’