Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Labour and Tory remainers aim to revoke Article 50 as May faces vote humiliation
LABOUR is getting ready to unite with Tory Remainers to sabotage Brexit.
And a highly-placed No10 source said: “No Brexit is now more likely than No Deal.”
Theresa May is pinning her hopes on an 11th-hour promise from the EU tomorrow that the controversial Irish backstop will be only temporary.
But as this pledge will not be legally binding the PM faces certain defeat when MPs vote on her withdrawal deal on Tuesday.
Tory Brexiteers predict she will lose by more than 200.
Jeremy Corbyn would prefer to force a General Election by winning a vote of no confidence in the Government. But Tory loyalists, rebels and the DUP will bury differences to stop him.
Mrs May, pictured above right, told today’s Sunday Express: “I face a Labour leader more concerned with playing politics than acting in the best interests of our country. He wants to recklessly sow the seeds of division in a bid to boost his own career.”
Plan B for Mr Corbyn is to stop No Deal, which would be the result of MPs dumping Mrs May’s deal. That would mean uniting with Tory Remainers, SNP and Lib Dems to revoke Article 50, which takes us out of the EU on March 29.
Mrs May added: “With MPs unwilling to face the uncertainty of no deal and with no other offer on the table, we will risk not leaving the EU at all.”
The Parliamentary process for scrapping Article 50 is not clear, but senior Tory and Labour MPs believe it is achievable. A Labour source said: “That is the direction this is now heading.”
The EU is adamant the deal on the table is the only one on offer. And nothing would delight its leaders more than for the UK to ditch Brexit. A senior Whitehall source said: “All the EU has to do is sit on its hands while we tear ourselves apart.”
Even if Mrs May miraculously won the vote, Article 50 might still have to be postponed.
There are doubts whether six essential pieces of Brexit legislation and 300 smaller changes can be railroaded through Parliament in the 75 days left before we leave.
A No10 source said: “We will do all it takes to get legislation through in time.”