‘When the moment came, my Cabinet colleagues chose not to say anything’
Esther Mcvey says ministers ‘crumbled’ around her in Brexit showdown which led to her resignation
Esther Mcvey has revealed how demanding a vote on Theresa May’s “terrible” Brexit deal provoked a “meltdown” in the Cabinet as colleagues “crumbled” around her. The former work and pensions secretary revealed how she was “shouted down” by Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary – Britain’s top civil servant – after asking for a vote on the biggest decision taken by politicians in nearly half a century.
Denying suggestions she had been “emotional” during the tense exchanges at last month’s five-hour Cabinet showdown, which resulted in her resigning along with Dominic Raab, then Brexit secretary, the Liverpudlian MP told The Daily
Telegraph: “No one in the Cabinet supported me. I was astounded. What I was asking for was a vote on the most important issue in a generation.”
Calling on Cabinet colleagues to “reflect upon” why they refused to be “accountable”, the former TV presenter turned politician described the deal as “terrible” and said she had told the Prime Minister it was “the worst of both worlds” and a “deal for nobody”.
“I thought we needed to focus our minds because this was a huge change for the country.
“But when the moment came, my Cabinet colleagues chose not to say anything. People talk about accountability, people talk about transparency, people talk about politicians with integrity but when it came to the crunch the other people around the room crumbled. I said, I hope they weren’t like that in their EU negotiations.”
Confirming she had been “shouted down” by Mr Sedwill and Julian Smith, the Chief Whip, Ms Mcvey said: “I was accused of having a meltdown but actually it was the opposite way round because people were so adamant not to have a vote that various people, the Chief Whip, Sedwill, yes, they did all (shout me down).”
Mr Sedwill referred to a copy of the Cabinet manual, which he said bars voting during meetings, but Ms Mcvey said there is a precedent for Cabinet votes under previous prime ministers including Ted Heath.
Laughing off suggestions she had cried, she added: “Considering the things I have gone through, all the benefit changes I’ve worked on for six years – a meeting just asking my colleagues to have a vote certainly wouldn’t make me do that.”
Accusing Mrs May of trying to be “all things to all people”, she said: “What we’ve ended up with is a fudge. We’re neither in nor out. Theresa May said herself in her Lancaster House speech that would be like purgatory.”
Having been unhappy with the direction of travel since Chequers, when David Davis and Boris Johnson resigned as Brexit and foreign secretaries, Ms Mcvey said her worst fears were compounded by the legal advice of Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, which has since been published against Mrs May’s wishes.
“If ever I’d read anything to tell you not to sign up to a deal, that legal advice had to be it. It showed it was a bad deal for the country.
“And then when there were so many interpretations, it added to its vagueness. It struck me the deal was a lawyer’s dream and a citizen’s nightmare.”
She said she was also concerned about the limited amount of time Cabinet ministers were given to study the deal, pointing out that EU bosses appeared to have seen it well in advance.
“You had Juncker and Barnier calling a 585-page document ‘balanced’ within an hour or so. I do think it was a very short window of opportunity to read a document that large. At Chequers, we only had the document a night or two before too.”
Calling for Mrs May to withhold the £39billion she has offered the EU, step up no-deal preparations and renegotiate, Ms Mcvey predicted the next election would “not look pretty” for the Conservative Party.
“Politics is all about trust. Trust is like the soul, once gone, it never returns. We’ve got to be as good as our word.
“My whole premise was – you must go back and get a better deal for the UK because this is not going to be good enough.”
Heavily criticising the lack of no-deal preparations, she added: “It took me eight months at work and pensions to get £4.5billion and another £1.5billion for our country’s most vulnerable people and yet we have given over £39billion, as far as I can see it, for nothing. We must use that money as leverage.
“And we need to be properly prepared for every eventuality. No-deal planning has been done in the departments but it’s never been put into law. We need to prioritise that.”
Insisting that losing Tuesday’s meaningful vote would strengthen Mrs May’s negotiation position, she said: “I still believe with four months left that the Prime Minister can get a better deal. She should go back to Brussels and say this isn’t going through the House, it has split my Cabinet, people have resigned and it isn’t what the country voted for. Only two or three things need to be changed, not the whole document. First of all there shouldn’t be a backstop – neither the EU [nor] our country want it, [so] why is it there? The £39billion is her trump card – she should offer half now and half when a trade deal has been signed.”
Ms Mcvey said tweaks to the non-binding political declaration or demands for a parliamentary lock on the backstop were inadequate, saying: “If it’s not in the Withdrawal Agreement, it doesn’t count for anything.”
She also called for a delegation of “experience” to be formed to sell post-brexit Britain on the international stage, suggesting David Cameron, the former prime minister, and William Hague, the former party leader, could be used as “ambassadors” and former Brexit ministers such as Davis, Raab and Steve Baker be drafted in to help in the trade negotiations.
Describing attempts by colleagues such as Dominic Grieve to give MPS a say on the kind of Brexit we end up with if the deal is voted down, she said: “Ironically, Parliament has taken back power from government only to go against the people who put it there.
“You can’t underestimate how patriotic the people of the country are. Part of the Brexit debate was control, having a say over laws and money and letting our politicians stand up for what we want, not sign away our sovereignty.
“There seems to have been an abrogation of responsibility.”
‘No one in the Cabinet supported me. I was astounded. I was asking for a vote on the most important issue in a generation’
‘Politics is all about trust. Trust is like the soul, once gone, it never returns. We’ve got to be as good as our word’