You can’t stop Brexit, MPs told

PM’s warning to Remainers plotting to block divorce from Brussels

THERESA May warned pro-Brussels MPs yesterday they won’t block Brexit – even if they vote down her final deal with the EU.

In an uncompromising message to Remainers, the Prime Minister said Britain could instead revert to a system of tariffs based on World Trade Organisation rules.

Mrs May said she was confident she could ‘negotiate a good trade deal ... because it will be in our interests and the interests of the European Union to do so’.

But asked whether there might be an option for MPs to vote to remain in the EU rather than accept a bad deal, the PM’s spokeswoman later said: ‘We are not going to give them an alternative which would be against the will of the British people.’

The warning put her on collision course with Labour, which vowed to engage in ‘hand-to-hand combat’ with the Government over the issue. Later today, ministers will publish legislation to formally take Britain out of the EU, following a Supreme Court ruling this week that Mrs May cannot trigger Brexit without Parliament’s approval.

MPs will then hold the first in a series of marathon debates next week.

In a surprise move, Mrs May yesterday bowed to demands by rebel Tories to publish a formal document setting out her aims for the Brexit negotiations.

Brexit Secretary David Davis repeatedly rejected the idea of publishing a White Paper on Tuesday, saying it was unnecessary and suggesting there was not enough time to produce one. But with Tory rebels including former ministers Dominic Grieve, Nicky Morgan and Anna Soubry threatening to join forces with Labour on the issue, Downing Street decided to concede rather than suffer an embarrassing Commons defeat.

Sources indicated the document will contain little new information and is likely to be published early next month. Ministers have pledged that MPs will get a binding vote on the final Brexit deal, which is expected in 2019.

Pro-Remain MPs believe it could be the springboard for keeping Britain in the EU, or retaining key aspects of membership such as the free movement of people.

But Mrs May yesterday told MPs that the UK will leave the EU even if Parliament votes down the deal.

She said that in that case the UK would have to ‘fall back on other arrangements’ – which sources indicated would mean reverting to the World Trade Organisation system of tariffs. Former Labour minister Pat McFadden said exit on those terms would mean firms facing steep tariffs and ‘a host of other barriers to trade, investment and prosperity’.

A spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described Mrs May’s stance as unacceptable, and said the party would demand a ‘mean- ingful’ vote that would require the Prime Minister to reopen negotiations with Brussels if she loses.

‘We won’t accept a take-it-orleave-it vote where the only alternative is turning Britain into a full-on bargain basement tax haven.’

Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schauble also warned the UK would not prosper if it tried to operate as a buccaneering low-tax economy in the manner of Singapore.

‘If a big country thinks that it can have the advantages of a small country, things will go wrong,’ he told a G20 conference. Great Britain can’t be compared with the Cayman Islands. That would be an insult to Great Britain.’

The Shadow Cabinet will hold an emergency meeting today to draw up Labour’s response to Article 50 legislation. Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said: ‘We will not get in the way of it, but we will try and amend the legislation in order to ensure that they keep coming back, that we keep an eye on them. And, if necessary, there will be hand-to-hand combat on this.’

Up to 60 Labour MPs – including several frontbenchers – are threatening to defy Mr Corbyn next week by refusing to vote for Article 50 legislation. But a spokesman for the Labour leader yesterday refused to say whether frontbenchers such as shadow foreign minister Catherine West and shadow education minister Tulip Siddique would face the sack if they ignored the order to respect the referendum result.

The spokesman said Mr Corbyn recognised there were ‘difficulties for some MPs’ who opposed Brexit.

Announcing the plan to publish a White Paper yesterday, Mrs May said she recognised there was an ‘appetite’ among MPs for a formal document to debate. The PM said it would set out ‘a bold vision for Britain for the future’. But, perhaps mindful of future legal challenges, she said the release of the formal document was ‘separate’ from the legislation to trigger Article 50.

Labour hailed the decision to publish a White Paper on Brexit as a ‘significant and welcome U-turn’ – and said it must be released in time for the first votes on the Article 50 law, which are expected next Wednesday. However, Government sources indicated it was likely to closely follow Mrs May’s 12-point plan for cutting ties with Brussels, which she outlined in a major speech last week.

White Papers have frequently been used as the basis for judicial reviews in the past and former Tory Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers warned that the climbdown could result in further court challenges.

But Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the warnings – pointing out that British courts could not derail the two-year exit process once Article 50 has been triggered.

‘Further judicial reviews won’t help those trying to thwart the will of the people,’ he said.

He said it was plain that Labour is still working to frustrate the process of leaving the European Union.

‘It doesn’t take [wartime code breaking station] Bletchley Park to decode Pat McFadden’s view,’ he said. ‘He wants to stay in the EU at all costs.’

‘Fall back on other arrangements’