TORY FURY OVER PM’S LAST- DITCH BREXIT BID
THERESA MAY sparked anger among Conservative backbenchers last night after offering MPs a vote on whether to hold a second referendum as part of a last-ditch attempt to push her Brexit deal through.
The prime minister said she would then be bound by whatever parliament decides on a second vote – if they first backed her Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
But, within minutes of her speech, she was losing support from her own side, with leadership hopeful Boris Johnson and leading Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg among those withdrawing their previous backing for her deal.
Speaking from PwC’s offices in central London, Mrs May said: ‘I have tried everything I possibly can to find a way through but it was
not enough. To those MPs who want a second referendum to confirm the deal: you need a deal to make it happen, then you can make your case to parliament.’
Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson announced he was pulling his support, after backing the deal in March. ‘We can and must do better – and deliver what the people voted for,’ he tweeted.
Mr Rees-Mogg, head of the European Research Group, who is set to support Mr Johnson in a leadership election, said: ‘The prime minister’s latest proposals are worse than before and would leave us bound deeply in to the EU. It is time to leave on WTO terms.’
Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith called Mrs May’s pitch a ‘convoluted mess’, while former loyalist Simon Clarke dubbed it ‘outrageous’.
Mrs May also tried reaching out to Labour by promising to let MPs decide what kind of Brexit they want, and to guarantee EU standards on the environment and workers’ rights.
But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mrs May’s offer was a ‘rehash’ of what had been discussed before.
Dame Margaret Beckett of the People’s Vote campaign said the prime minister could not deliver on her promise. ‘MPs will be rightly weary of offers from a prime minister who is about to resign and will probably be replaced by a hardline successor,’ she added.
Mrs May will put her bill to MPs for the fourth time in the week of June 3 and has promised to ‘set a timetable for the election of her successor’ after the vote.
She did not say whether Tory MPs would be given a free vote or whipped on the option of a second referendum, which was defeated by 27 votes when an ‘indicative’ vote was held in March.
But international development secretary Rory Stewart backed Mrs May.
He said: ‘We need to get Brexit done. The delay and uncertainty is doing real damage to businesses and consumer confidence across the country.’
The CBI’s director-general, Carolyn Fairbairn, said Brexit had left the economy ‘stranded in no man’s land’ and ‘the prime minister’s offer provides a way forward but only MPs can take it’.
Mrs May also promised to speed up efforts to find alternatives to the Irish backstop, designed to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland, and give MPs a veto on triggering it. But her allies in the DUP said she should renegotiate with the EU rather than ‘trying to mitigate a bad deal’.
Former minister Nick Boles, who left the Tories in March after they rejected his bid for a soft Brexit said Mrs May had waited too long.
‘If Theresa May had delivered this speech two years ago, we’d be out of the EU already,’ he tweeted.
‘And Nigel Farage would be playing golf in Florida.’
It took Mrs May more than three hours to win cabinet backing for her latest offer, saying it was ‘ vital to find a way to get it over the line’.
Chancellor Philip Hammond warned a no-deal Brexit would cause ‘unpredictable, potentially significant’ damage to the economy.
‘Britain needs a Brexit that feels like a compromise; one that everyone can live with,’ he tweeted.
But Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said Britain had to leave the EU by November. ‘If we get to the end of October and it’s not possible to get a deal, leaving the EU is the most important thing,’ she added.