Is May’s deal already dead in the water?

Warning as PM readies 4th Brexit vote...

THERESA May’s Brexit deal could be ‘dead’ in weeks, Cabinet ministers warned yesterday.

It came as Tory hardliners, the DUP and Labour lined up to say they would vote it down a fourth time.

Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox both warned that another rejection could lead to Brexit being cancelled.

The Prime Minister will today appeal to Tory grandees for a stay of execution while she makes a final attempt to pass her Brexit deal in just over a fortnight.

The executive body of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs will meet Mrs May this morning to decide whether to change the party’s leadership rules and allow a fresh contest that could see her forced out within weeks.

Asked if the new vote would be considered a ‘confidence vote’ for Mrs May, a No 10 source said: ‘That’s not the world we are currently in but clearly the significance of this legislation can’t – and I suspect won’t – be underestimated.’

Mr Barclay told MPs the deal negotiated by Mrs May with Brussels would be ‘dead’ if MPs rejected it again, raising questions about whether the UK would ever leave the EU.

Dr Fox, meanwhile, told an event in London: ‘MPs will have to look and see if they want to continue down a path that inexorably takes us to either the potential revocation of Article 50 or leaving without a deal, and ask themselves if that’s the best cause democratically or economically for the UK. MPs will have to face that decision.’

Last night Eurosceptic MPs were lobbying members of the 1922 Committee’s 18-strong executive to ignore Mrs May’s pleas and pull the plug on her today.

One former Cabinet minister said her decision to promise a new vote on her Brexit deal next month was ‘just a scam to try and head off the 1922 Committee changing the leadership rules’, adding: ‘They have to see through it. She cannot be allowed out of that room without giving a date for her departure.’

Opinion on the executive committee was said to be finely balanced after a ‘heated’ meeting last night.

Last month, members voted by nine to seven against changing the rules to allow a fresh vote of confidence in Mrs May’s leadership. Instead, they demanded a clear timetable for her departure.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the 1922 Committee, said yesterday it was ‘sadly now time to hand over the reins to someone else with fresh ideas and the moral authority to lead the party’.

Chairman Sir Graham Brady, who has favoured a ‘dignified’ departure for Mrs May, is also said to have hardened his position, and this week signed a letter criticising her decision to open talks on a soft Brexit deal with Labour.

No 10 confirmed yesterday that MPs will be asked to vote on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week beginning on June 3.

Mrs May urged MPs on all sides to back the deal, saying: ‘This is the Bill that delivers Brexit.’ But a Shadow Cabinet minister told the Mail: ‘Jeremy [Corbyn] might be happy to let this Brexit deal go through but there is no way the party will let it happen.’

Mrs May’s DUP partners also ruled out backing the deal while it contains the Irish backstop.

And hardline Eurosceptics, whose opposition has scuppered the deal three times, indicated they would not back down.

Former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson said: ‘Sadly, we will vote against it again because it doesn’t change the essential nature of the withdrawal agreement, which is unacceptable.’