What now, Prime Minister?
Cabinet ministers demand action to rescue Brexit vote May given four options to prevent crushing defeat
CABINET ministers last night told Theresa May to come up with an 11thhour plan to get her Brexit deal through the Commons as the Chief Whip admitted she would lose Tuesday’s vote.
The Prime Minister was confronted in Downing Street by Amber Rudd and other senior ministers who demanded to know what she intended to do to salvage the vote, and her Brexit deal.
During the crisis meeting called by Mrs May, ministers offered her four options, including a postponement of the vote, but came away exasperated when she refused to commit to any of them.
At one point a frustrated Ms Rudd asked her: “What do you want to do, Prime Minister?” only to receive a “non-committal” reply.
Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, conceded for the first time that the Government was heading for defeat over the Withdrawal Agreement, and the ministers warned Mrs May that a defeat by 200 votes was not impossible. Mrs May is understood to have agreed with them that such a catastrophic defeat had to be avoided at all costs.
Cabinet sources said ministers were already forming into groups that would present Mrs May with alternative ways forward over the weekend.
At least 12 ministers are understood to favour postponing the vote, with Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary and former chief whip, among the most vociferous. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said there was “no point in ploughing ahead” with the vote if the Government is going to lose it, and that it would be “sensible to delay it for a few days”.
However, Mrs May would have to ask Parliament’s permission to do this, running the risk that she could be humiliated by being forced to go ahead with the vote against her will. Yesterday, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, told the Commons it was “a delusion” to think Brussels would offer Britain a better deal at this late stage, which could undermine any attempt by Mrs May to persuade rebel MPS otherwise.
Esther Mcvey, who resigned as work and pensions secretary last month over Brexit, said the Government had lost the public’s trust by trying to sell it a “terrible” deal. She said that demands she made for a Cabinet show of hands on the deal prompted a “meltdown” as ministers “crumbled” around her.
Meanwhile it emerged that Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, who resigned over Brexit, had used a speech to financiers in the Netherlands to compare the predicament of hard Brexiteers to Winston Churchill at the start of the Second World War.
Mrs May held her one-hour meeting with nine members of her Cabinet after summoning them to Downing Street.
Mr Smith and Brexiteers Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove and Liam Fox were joined by Remainers Ms Rudd, Mr Hammond, David Lidington, David Gauke and Karen Bradley. The options they discussed included delaying the vote for up to a week so Mrs May could ask Brussels for concessions on the backstop at the next summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday next week.
That idea would be fraught with risk, because it would then put huge pressure on Mrs May to come back with a concrete pledge from the EU. Another option would be to delay the vote until early January to give her more time to persuade Brussels to reopen negotiations, but that would leave only days to win over MPS before the Jan 21 deadline for getting Parliament’s backing. After that, MPS would have the right to take control of Brexit.
Mrs May could try to visit Brussels before the vote in the hope that the EU would recognise her deal was doomed without a fresh concession.
A fourth option would be to table an amendment to next week’s vote promising MPS more control over the backstop, though there are doubts as to its legality in international law.
The only good news for Mrs May yesterday came when Stephen Lloyd, the Lib Dem MP, unexpectedly resigned his party whip in order to vote for her deal next week.
Last night Sir Hugo Swire, the former Foreign Office minister, and fellow Tory MPS Richard Graham and Bob Neill tabled an amendment calling for MPS to be given a vote in 2020 on whether to implement the backstop or to extend the transition period. It was so similar to an offer made to rebels by Mrs May that it led to speculation the three men had been asked by the Government to table the amendment in the hope that it unites the party around the deal.
Mrs May risks further criticism from her party today with a decision to deploy 30 ministers around the country to push her Brexit deal to the public instead of using them to change MPS’ minds in London.
THERESA MAY had started the day optimistically, suggesting to Today programme listeners that she could still win the vote on her Brexit deal, which would definitely go ahead next Tuesday.
With a little sleight of hand over the troublesome backstop she would persuade rebel Tory MPS that everything would be all right because they would “have a choice” about whether to use it.
Just 90 minutes after she came off air, however, the mask had slipped. Either side of 10am a succession of Cabinet ministers received phone calls from Downing Street calling them to an emergency meeting to discuss the Brexit deal vote.
Only when they received an email minutes later did they know who else would be attending – nine ministers in all, with Brexiteers outnumbered two to one by Remainers.
So unexpected was the summons that Philip Hammond, who had planned to spend most of the day debating the Brexit deal’s effect on the economy, had to leave the Commons chamber to head to Downing Street at 1.30pm.
Several ministers assumed they were about to be told about a new idea Mrs May had devised to get her dying Brexit deal through Parliament.
Once inside her office, however, it became clear that she had invited them to a brainstorming session to discuss what, if anything, they could do to avoid a catastrophic defeat in the vote on Tuesday.
By Mrs May’s side was Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, and arranged around the room were Remainers Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, David Lidington, David Gauke and Karen Bradley, and Brexiteers Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove and Liam Fox.
“I think people had turned up expecting her to say ‘this is the preferred course’,” said one Cabinet source. “But instead it was obvious she doesn’t really know what to do next.”
Mr Smith set the tone by admitting for the first time that the Government would lose the vote next Tuesday if it went ahead.
“There was a general agreement, including from the PM, that there is no virtue in losing by 200 votes next week,” said another source. “But when she was pressed directly she wouldn’t come to any agreement about how to avoid that.”
Several ministers discussed the idea of postponing the vote until after Mrs May has been to Brussels next week, with the hope that she can win a further concession and hold the vote later in the month.
“There was a suggestion that we could postpone the vote until the 17th,” said a source, “But that would put huge pressure on the PM to come back with something concrete from Brussels. And you don’t want another Salzburg situation.”
Mr Smith and Mr Lidington “talked enthusiastically” about amending next week’s vote to give Parliament more control over the backstop. Mrs May wanted to know if it was just the backstop that was killing the vote, or if other factors needed to be taken into consideration.
Mrs Leadsom pressed her view that a managed no deal would not be a disaster, backed by Mr Fox.
She pointed out that if a deal had not been agreed by Jan 21, Parliament would seize control of Brexit thanks to the former attorney general Dominic Grieve’s amendment passed earlier this week that allows MPS to instruct the Government on what to do next.
The mood in the hour-long meeting gradually turned to frustration as ideas circled round and round without any decisions being taken.
Ministers asked her: “These are your options, which one do you want?” but Mrs May remained “non-committal”.
Finally Ms Rudd, brought back into the Cabinet just last month as a May loyalist, tried to break the impasse by asking her: “What do you want to do, Prime Minister?” But she “got nothing” in return.
“There was a certain amount of dismay that the Prime Minister didn’t really put her cards on the table,” said one source. “She didn’t really seem fully engaged and once again she showed that she just doesn’t listen.” Nobody raised the idea of a second referendum and nobody suggested Mrs May should think about resigning.
When the meeting broke up, however, no one was any the wiser as to what Mrs May intended to do next.
“No one came away thinking the vote is going to be postponed next week,” said one source. “But no one came away with any idea what else she can do to avoid a heavy defeat. It seems as though, as ever, the Prime Minister just wants to avoid taking a decision for as long as she can get away with it.”
As well as delaying the vote by a few days, the ministers discussed delaying the vote by weeks in order to persuade the EU to enter full re-negotiations on the deal, despite Brussels’ insistence that the Withdrawal Agreement is final.
Another option discussed by the group was giving Brexiteers a commitment that once Britain has left the European Union next year “we can do anything we want”, including scrapping the backstop.
But others argued that doing so would put Britain in breach of an international treaty – the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement – which would be disastrous for the UK’S reputation and its prospects of signing trade deals with other countries in the future.