May holds axe over Brexit vote
Doomed’ deal may be shelved to save her skin
THERESA May is agonising over whether to pull the big Brexit vote to save her skin.
The PM knows that if she lets Tuesday’s crunch division go ahead she risks her premiership going down in flames.
So she is spending today hitting the phones, desperately trying to persuade wavering MPS to back her Brexit withdrawal plan.
Labour, SNP, DUP, other opposition MPS and at least 106 Tories are adamant they will go against her, triggering a confidence vote in the Government.
Mrs May publicly maintains the vote will take place as planned at 8.30pm despite private doubts she will be pulverised.
No10 said it was “one hundred per cent certain” the vote will go ahead as scheduled.
But divisions in the Tories are entrenched and the atmosphere in the Commons Tea Room is so toxic many MPS now avoid it.
Brexiter MP Andrew Bridgen said: “The whole party is now engaged in waging an uncivil war.”
Meanwhile Mrs May’s close ally Amber Rudd took to the Radio 4 airwaves to proclaim a Norway-plus option which would see the UK retain access to the EU’S single market and join a customs union.
But realising she had gone too far, an official at her Department for Work and Pensions broke civil service protocol by sending out a press release saying Ms Rudd was “fully behind” the PM’S deal.
There is more bad news for Mrs May today as a powerful committee of MPS savages her deal as a leap into the unknown.
They also say we will be unable to leave the EU on March 29 and Article 50 must be extended.
Voice of the Sunday People: p14