Ministers call for ‘indicative votes’ on Brexit
May urged to consider non-binding polls in Commons to rule out alternatives to her deal
THERESA May is under pressure to give MPS “indicative votes” on various approaches to Brexit, after Liam Fox became the first Eurosceptic Cabinet minister to endorse the plans. Eight Cabinet ministers are now pushing for the Prime Minister to hold a series of non-binding votes in the Commons to test the “will of the House” on different options for leaving the EU.
Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, believes that the move would help to bolster the chances of Mrs May’s deal being agreed by Parliament by ruling out alternatives such as a Norway or Canada-style Brexit.
However, Remain-backing ministers believe it could help to strengthen the campaign for a second referendum if Mrs May’s deal is voted down. “She is not going to get the numbers,” a Cabinet source told The Daily Telegraph. “More and more options are being taken off the table. We are getting closer to a second referendum.”
Dr Fox indicated his support for the idea when he appeared on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One yesterday.
“I wouldn’t have a huge problem with Parliament as a whole having a say on what the options were, because it wasn’t the Government that was given an instruction by the referendum, it was Parliament,” he said. “Parliament said in that referendum, we can’t make a decision. We are going to… subcontract our sovereignty to the people and they gave us an instruction. It’s time Parliament carried it out.”
However, Dr Fox said there were a “limited number of real-world options”, as he poured cold water on alternative approaches. The choice was between “the deal that the Prime Minister has negotiated, if we can get it into a shape MPS are happy with, or no Brexit. There are no other options.”
He added that cancelling Brexit would be “a betrayal” of voters.
Mrs May would need to secure a mechanism for the backstop that did not leave the UK feeling “it could be trapped there”, in order for her deal to be made palatable to a majority of MPS, Dr Fox said. Damian Hinds, the Remain-backing Education Secretary, said yesterday that he would back the approach to “flush out” alternatives.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I think there is a value in, sort of, flushing out what these various different options are that, as I say, some people support very strongly but don’t have a majority in favour of them.” MPS needed to “get beyond” what their “first choice” Brexit would be and instead be open to compromise, he told Sky News.
He urged MPS to use the Christmas period to reflect on “all that we have in common” and to “come together in support of a good balanced deal”.
The “indicative votes” approach was first advocated by Mr Hinds during a Cabinet conference call last week. Mrs May was said to have been “dismissive” of the idea amid concerns it would lead to more “game playing in Parliament”.