PM’s ultimatum
She challenges critics to come clean on their intentions and warns UK must compromise
A DEFIANT Theresa May threw down the gauntlet to MPs yesterday and questioned whether they were serious about delivering Brexit.
In a highly charged emergency debate, the Prime Minister warned her opponents that they must be prepared for compromise if Britain is ever to leave the European Union on anything other than ‘no deal’ terms.
Mrs May urged MPs to come clean about their real intentions and highlighted a series of critical flaws in the three main alternatives to her Brexit plan. While admitting she was deferring a crunch vote on the agreement she had struck with Brussels, she insisted it remained the best option for securing Britain’s future. However, critics on both sides of the House warned her that simple assurances from EU leaders on the controversial Northern Ireland backstop would not be enough to eventually get her deal through the Commons. They demanded much more radical changes to the agreement, specifically over the postBrexit role of the European Court of Justice and the amount of money the UK is handing over in return for a smooth exit from the EU.
The Prime Minister also faced a significant number of calls for a second referendum.
But warning MPs of the consequences of their intransigence, she said: ‘If you take a step back, it is clear that this House faces a fundamental question. Does this House want to deliver Brexit? And if it does, does it want to do so through reaching an agreement with the EU?
‘If the answer is yes, and I believe that is the answer of the majority of this House, then we all have to ask ourselves whether we are prepared to make a compromise. Because there will be no enduring and successful Brexit without some compromise on both sides of the debate.’
She told MPs there wasn’t any deal available that does not include a backstop to solve the problem of the border in Northern Ireland.
‘Those members who continue to disagree need to shoulder the responsibility of advocating an alternative solution that can be delivered, and to do so without ducking its implications,’ she said.
‘So if you want a second referendum to overturn the result of the first, be honest that this risks dividing the country again, when as a House we should be striving to bring it back together.
‘If you want to remain part of the single market and the customs union, be open that this would require free movement, rule-taking across the economy, and ongoing financial contributions – none of which are, in my view, compatible with the result of the referendum.
‘If you want to leave without a deal, be upfront that in the short term this would cause significant economic damage to parts of our country that can least afford to bear the burden.
‘I do not believe that any of those courses of action command a majority in this House. But as long as we fail to agree a deal, the risk of an accidental no deal increases.’
Shouts of ‘resign’ were heard from the Labour benches as the Prime Minister concluded her statement. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘The Government has lost control of events and is in complete disarray.’
Bringing back a ‘botched’ amendment to her deal would not deal with its ‘fundamental flaws’, he said. ‘This is a bad deal for Britain, a bad deal for our economy and a bad deal for our democracy. Our country deserves better than this.’
A number of Tory backbenchers praised Mrs May, with Dame Cheryl Gillan saying: ‘Far from being frit [frightened], I think this Prime Minister has shown great courage in coming back to face this House, delay this vote in efforts to get the best possible deal.’
John Redwood demanded she tell Brussels that we would not be ‘signing away’ £39billion as part of the withdrawal agreement, saying: ‘We do not owe this money.’
Labour MP Hilary Benn, the Brexit select committee chairman, asked whether any EU leaders had said they were prepared to renegotiate the backstop protocol as ‘in the absence of any such commitment, isn’t cancelling the vote merely postponing the inevitable’.
Labour backbencher Jess Phillips attacked the ‘can kicking’, saying it would make no difference to the will of the House. Her colleague Mary Creagh said Mrs May seemed to want to merely ‘fail again, fail better’, adding: ‘Whatever she brings back, it’ll be voted down.’
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve was one of a number of MPs who demanded a second referendum – a call repeatedly rejected by the Prime Minister.
During Mrs May’s appearance in the Commons yesterday, Speaker John Bercow interrupted her to inform Government ministers that it would be ‘deeply discourteous’ to delay the vote on the withdrawal agreement. But the Government will today shun his advice and use a common parliamentary method to postpone the vote until an unconfirmed date in the future.
‘Be upfront if you don’t want a deal’