IS ‘NO DEAL’ NOW OFF?
Hardliners are warned if they don’t line up behind Mrs May there may be no Brexit at all
EUROSCEPTICS ‘may lose their Brexit’ if they vote down the final deal, senior ministers warned yesterday.
Until now, Theresa May has insisted she is ready to walk away without an agreement unless the EU makes a good offer.
But in a series of interventions yesterday a string of ministers – including the PM – played down the prospect of walking away without a deal.
The move appeared to be a switch in tactics by Downing Street aimed at pressuring Eurosceptics to back the vote. Some 56 Eurosceptic MPs have now signed up to the ‘Stand up for Brexit’ campaign, which commits them to voting against any deal based on Mrs May’s Chequers proposals.
Officials are also drawing up plans for a possible second vote on the deal if MPs vote it down the first time. Some allies of the PM believe a no vote would spark economic chaos that would pile the pressure on rebel MPs and Labour to back down.
‘We would be in uncharted territory,’ said a Government source. ‘MPs would have to think carefully about what they did next.’ But others believe it would be dangerous to risk an economic meltdown in the run up to Christmas in the hope of getting the deal through.
One Tory MP said: ‘If No.10 think this is a good idea, they need their head examined. Mucking around with financial markets is simply lunacy.’
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd yesterday said there was no chance of the UK leaving without a deal. It is my view that the House of Commons will stop no deal,’ she told the BBC. There isn’t a majority in the House of Commons to allow that to take place.’
Miss Rudd said she expected MPs to back Mrs May’s plan after peering into the ‘abyss’ and pulling back.
But she added: ‘If it doesn’t get through, anything could happen. The Brexiteers may lose their Brexit.’
Hours later, the Treasury chief secretary Elizabeth Truss stepped up the warning, saying: ‘If my colleagues in Parliament don’t vote for this then we’re in grave danger of not leaving at all.’ Mrs May, who arrived in Brussels yesterday for talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, also appeared to pull back on the threat to leave without a deal. Asked in the Commons whether she was dropping the threat to leave without a deal, the PM said: ‘The point that has been made by a number of my colleagues in relation to the vote – a meaningful vote on a deal from the European Union – is very simple.
‘If we look at the alternative to that deal with the European Union, we see that it will either be more uncertainty and more division, or it could risk no Brexit at all.’
But asked whether the UK would leave the EU next March ‘come what may’, the Prime Minister replied: ‘I can give her the assurance that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 29 March 2019.’
Yesterday’s comments appear to mark a significant shift in tone. Unveiling the deal in the Commons last week, Mrs May warned MPs that voting down her proposals would mean ‘we will leave with no deal, or no Brexit at all.’
But the ministers’ comments were seized upon by Labour, whose shadow chancellor John McDonnell said there was ‘an overwhelming majority opposing anything that smacks of being no deal’.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘After these comments from Amber Rudd, it’s time for the Government to drop the false choice between a bad deal and no deal, and to come forward with a plan that can command the majority support of Parliament.’ Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon added: ‘Amber Rudd exposes the falsity of the PM’s tactics – it is not a choice between her bad deal or no deal. There are better alternatives.’
Chancellor Philip Hammond told ITV’s Peston: ‘It’s clear that if the deal is not approved by Parliament we will have a politically chaotic situation. And, we don’t know what the outcome of that will be.’ It came as experts warned the economy will shrink by £40billion if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal.
Crashing out of the bloc without an agreement would leave the economy 2 per cent smaller after two years than it otherwise would be, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
That is equal to around £40billion – slightly more than the £39billion ‘divorce bill’ the UK is due to pay the EU if we leave by mutual agreement.
The OECD said a no-deal scenario would trigger widespread disruption and create damaging uncertainty.
A report said: ‘The failure to come to a withdrawal agreement with the EU is by far the greatest risk in the short term.’
‘Pulling back from the abyss’ ‘There are better alternatives’