TIME TO PUT YOUR COUNTRY FIRST
If MPs back Theresa May’s deal, we can leave the EU, unite Britain and end the political paralysis. That’s why today the Mail urges them to honour the referendum result – and deliver on Brexit
THERESA May is braced for a crushing Commons defeat for her Brexit plan tonight after MPs rejected last-minute reassurances from Brussels.
Allies of the Prime Minister acknowledged her plans could be rejected by a majority approaching 200 votes – eclipsing record government defeats of modern times.
They believe Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will then try to exploit Tory divisions by forcing a formal vote of no confidence in the Government tomorrow, which could usher in a general election.
In a last-ditch appeal to Parliament yesterday, Mrs May urged MPs opposed to her plans to give the proposed withdrawal agreement ‘a second look’ in the light of assurances in a letter from EU chiefs Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk yesterday.
She acknowledged that the plan was not perfect, but added: ‘When the history books are written, people will look at the decision of this House tomorrow and ask: Did we deliver on the country’s vote to leave the European Union?’
Tory Eurosceptics and Mrs May’s governing partners in the DUP last night rejected her plea. Sky News forecast the PM would be defeated by 422 votes to 197.
A former Cabinet minister said: ‘There’s no avoiding it, this is the Charge of the Light Brigade’. On the eve of the vote:
Friends of International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said she would vote for the plan, despite having failed to back it in public;
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said Mrs May’s deal was ‘the only politically practicable and available means’ of leaving the EU;
Former Tory ministers Nick Boles, Nicky Morgan and Sir Oliver Letwin vowed to press ahead with plans to allow Parliament to seize control of Brexit;
Tory whip Gareth Johnson became the latest government figure to resign over the deal;
Mr Corbyn told Labour MPs he would not hold off from calling a vote of no confidence;
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has postponed a planned caesarean section to cast her vote against Mrs May’s plan;
Mrs May refused to rule out extending Article 50.
The Prime Minister is expected to make an immediate statement to MPs tonight on her next move. An ally said: ‘In the words of Churchill, she will keep buggering on. She is not going to abandon the deal and she is not going to quit.’
Cabinet sources said a heavy defeat would put Mrs May under intense pressure to scrap her plan and choose between the warring factions demanding that she either pursue a ‘soft’ Brexit or manage the leaving the EU without a deal.
The vote was originally due last month but was pulled at the last minute in the face of overwhelming opposition. The PM pledged to negotiate ‘legally binding’ assurances from the EU to calm fears that the so-called backstop, which is designed to prevent a hard border on Ireland if trade talks falter, from keeping the UK permanently in a customs union.
She acknowledged that the letter from the EU fell short of what she had requested. The letter said the EU did not want the backstop to become permanent and Brussels would not impose new laws.
But former Tory minister Mark Francois dismissed the concessions as only ‘a small fig leaf’.
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said: ‘As things stand we could not support Theresa May’s deal and therefore it will be defeated.’
On Sunday, four Brexiteer Tory MPs came out in support of the withdrawal agreement because of concerns about the threat to Brexit if it is voted down. They had previously been wavering.