MAY THE FARCE BE WITH YOU
Queen’s Speech & Brexit talks up in the air as PM tells angry MPs she ‘messed up’
THE PM’s grip on No10 has turned to farce as Brexit talks and the Queen’s Speech face being delayed.
Mrs May told her MPs “I got us into this mess” as ongoing talks with the DUP to prop her up threw deadlines into chaos.
One Labour chief said: “It shows the level of disruption.”
IRRITATED Queen could miss a day at Ascot THERESA May forced a smile at the first meeting of her new Cabinet as her government went into meltdown waiting for a deal with the DUP to keep it in power.
The floundering PM admitted to Tory MPs she was in a “mess” as she was forced to inform Buckingham Palace she may not be ready for Her Majesty to unveil her new programme for Government by next Monday.
Downing Street even laughably tried to blame the delay on archaic rules which state the royal speech must be printed on goatskin parchment which takes ages to dry.
And, as the Tory Party erupted into civil war over how to exit Europe, Brexit Minister David Davis admitted he may have to delay the start of negotiations, due to start on Monday – a deadline Mrs May constantly reminded voters of in the election campaign.
Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said: “This just shows the level of disruption and chaos the Government is in.”
If the delay is confirmed, it would be the first time in almost a century the Queen’s Speech has not gone ahead as planned.
And, according to Mrs May’s new de facto deputy, Damian Green, the chaos is all because the Tories are still finalising a deal with 10 hard-right Northern Irish DUP MPs to prop up their minority.
“Until we have that, we can’t agree the final details of the Queen’s Speech,” Mr Green said.
After the Cabinet meeting, First Secretary of State Mr Green insisted there was “overwhelming support” for the PM.
But one look at the make-up of her Cabinet reveals it is divided between Remainers and Brexiteers.
The PM was flanked by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a Brexiteer, who has rejected reports he was considering a leadership challenge – and Education Secretary Justine Greening, a Remainer.
Royal experts said the 91-year-old Queen would be deeply irritated by her shambolic treatment. She could now miss a day at Royal Ascot if the speech is rescheduled. Her Majesty had already ditched an Order of the Garter ceremony on Monday to make way for the speech, following Mrs May’s U-turn decision to call the snap election. Royal historian Professor Kate Williams said: “It’s unprecedented. The Queen’s diary is packed and she’ll of course be hoping to attend Ascot on Tuesday and the rest of the week.” After the Cabinet meeting, Mrs May faced her furious backbenchers for the first time since the election. One Tory MP said Mrs May was “contrite” at the private 1922 Committee meeting and said sorry “several times”. “I got us into this mess, I’ll get us out of it,” she said. The Tory source added: “She said she was responsible for the campaign and the early election decision.”
It was what many wanted to hear and some even praised her performance in the hour-long showdown, saying she had done enough to stay on. Mrs May came out smiling after answering at least 20 questions and one MP said: “She’s bought herself a good deal of time.”
The MP added: “She recognised social care policy hadn’t worked.” The PM also admitted the Tories had “perhaps not done enough” to reassure cuts-hit public sector workers.
And this was where Jeremy Corbyn scored so well with the electorate, Mrs May’s new chief of staff Gavin Parwell admitted.
He told a Panorama special: “A teacher who voted for me in 2010 and 2015 said ‘I understand the need for a pay freeze for a few years... but you’re asking for that to go on potentially for 10 or 11 years, and that’s too much’.” The
ex-MP who lost his seat in Croydon added: “That is something Jeremy Corbyn was able to tap into.”
Senior Tories confirmed they are too scared of Jeremy Corbyn’s popular anti-austerity stance to topple Mrs May and risk another election. A former Cabinet Minister said: “We all said that would be a very bad idea – and the PM agreed.”
Mrs May also made it very clear she didn’t think there was any appetite either in the party or the country for another election any time soon.
Ministers were last night being forced to strip their manifesto of controversial measures.
These included the Dementia Tax, winter fuel allowance cuts and the revival of fox-hunting, because they do not have enough MPs to push them through. Brexit Secretary David Davis admitted: “Some elements may be pruned away.”
And 1922 Committee chair Graham Brady said: “As we don’t have a majority for the manifesto, there will be some changes.”
More humiliation for the Tories came when Mr Davis admitted the Government may have to delay the start of the Brexit negotiations. Mrs May spent the seven-week election campaign claiming only she could provide “strong and stable leadership” to kick off the most crucial negotiation in modern British history, 11 days after the election.
But yesterday Mr Davis admitted he was now unsure which day the talks would even start.
Mr Davis said: “It’s in the week of next week, basically, the first discussions. It may not be on Monday because we have the Queen’s Speech that week and I’ll have to speak in that, and so on.”
Despite the Tories’ election meltdown Mr Davis claimed he would be pressing ahead with the PM’s plan for a hard Brexit, putting immigration as the only real priority, regardless of the impact on jobs.
But pro-EU Tories are now staging a major rebellion that could split the party.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson – emboldened after reviving the party north of the border – warned Mrs May she must now tone down her hard Brexit plan. “The key issue is to ensure we put our country’s economic future first and foremost in our minds as we go ahead,” she said.
Influential Tory MP George Freeman, who chairs the Conservative Policy Forum, also called for Mrs May to ditch her hard Brexit and focus on promises to help “just about managing” families, a feature of her early days in office.
“It’s a moment for Cabinet to return to that messianic message of hope,” he said.
Tory peer Ann McIntosh even urged Mrs May to work with Labour and the Lib Dems on Brexit.
And ex-Tory MP Stephen Dorrell, who chairs the European Movement UK, said Mrs May’s Brexit plan has been rejected by the British public.
“Theresa May said she was seeking a mandate to negotiate her sort of Brexit. The result denies her that mandate,” he said.
Mrs May flies to Paris today for her first one-toone with French President Emmanuel Macron.
FEARS are mounting for the Northern Ireland peace process following the Tories’ deal with the DUP.
It came as fresh revelations emerged about the hardline unionist party and its links with paramilitary organisations.
They include connections with a group that organised an illegal shipment of arms into Northern Ireland.
While DUP leader Arlene Foster last year refused to back calls to sack an alleged loyalist group boss, Dee Stitt, as head of a publicly funded charity.
Prime Minister Theresa May will today hold talks with Mrs Foster over a confidence-and-supply arrangement in which her 10 MPs back the Tories on key votes.
But former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain feared the impact of the deal on the power-sharing agreement.
He said: “I am really worried about the sense the Government will be seen as held prisoner by the DUP.” He added Northern Ireland’s other parties would be asking, “are you genuinely neutral and can we trust you to broker an agreement between all of us when you are dependant on one of them?”
Ireland’s incoming Prime Minister Leo Varadkar also raised concerns. He said: “Our role as guarantors, here in Dublin and London, is to act as co-guarantors and not to be close to any particular party in the North.”
While Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said: “Any deal which undercuts in any way the process here or the Good Friday and the other agreements is one which has to be opposed by progressives.” He added Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire’s impartiality had been compromised, meaning he was “not an acceptable chair” in talks aimed at restoring power sharing at Stormont.
Mrs Foster insisted the DUP “stood on a clear policy platform” of restoring the power-sharing government.
But Mrs May faced a backlash for sharing power with a party with links to violent paramilitary groups. DUP East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson chaired the
first meeting of loyalist paramilitary organisation Ulster Resistance in 1986.
Ex-DUP leaders Rev Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson were pictured at the meeting wearing its red berets. The aim of Ulster Resistance, set up by a collection of people who went on to be prominent DUP politicians, was to “take direct action as and when required” to end the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Intelligence reports revealed last year showed members of Ulster Resistance plotted with other loyalist paramilitaries to import weapons from December 1986. A Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland report said two Ulster Resistance fighters at the launch, hosted by the DUP, went on to play key roles in importing “a large consignment of firearms... to the UK from Beirut in late 1987/early 1988”.
And in a 2012 report, Sir Desmond de Silva stated: “The importation of arms in late 1987 appears to have been a joint project between the UDA, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Resistance. “Members of Ulster Resistance played perhaps the most critical part.” One weapon was used in the Loughinisland massacre in 1994, when UVF gunmen killed six civilians watching a Republic of Ireland World Cup game in a pub. DUP insists it cut links with Ulster Resistance in 1987. The weapons have never been decommissioned.
But Loyalist Communities Council, linked to the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando, publicly endorsed DUP’s Nigel Dodds, Gavin Robinson and Emma Little-Pengelly in the election.
DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it is “a party of law and order” and does not want “the support of anyone or any organisation that continues to be involved in paramilitary or criminal activity”. In her acceptance speech, Mrs Little-Pengelly specifically thanked voters in loyalist areas such as Taughmonagh and Donegall Pass.
While Mrs Foster has posed for pictures with alleged UDA boss Stitt, who is chief of Charter NI. It is running a £1.7million employment scheme as part of the Stormont Executive’s £80million Social Investment Fund.
A convicted armed robber who spent time in notorious Maze Prison, in one interview he described beating a prison officer with snooker balls.
Meanwhile DUP supporters yesterday called for banned Orange marches to be covered in coalition talks.
The Portadown Loyal Orange Lodge in Co Armagh said it wanted the Drumcree march restored. It was banned from Garvaghy Road in the nationalist area due to repeated riots.
Orange Order said in a statement: “We trust the parading issue, especially in Portadown, will be high on the agenda for the new Government.”