May will put off a third vote if she cannot win it

THERESA MAY will cancel plans to hold a third vote on her Brexit deal this week if she does not believe she can win it, ministers revealed yesterday.

Instead, Downing Street is understood to be discussing an alternative strategy of holding the vote next week, cranking up pressure on MPS to back the deal or take the blame for a delay.

Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, said there would be “no point” in holding the vote “if we had no chance of winning”. He was supported by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, who said: “We will only bring the deal back if we are confident … we can get it through Parliament.”

If the vote is pulled, Mrs May will have no option but to ask the European Union for a delay of up to two years when she attends a summit of European leaders on Thursday. The EU would be likely to impose conditions on agreeing such a delay, giving her the option of holding a vote on the existing deal next week, when she will be able to confront MPS with the reality of what will happen if they reject it.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister warned MPS that if they did not back her deal, “we will not leave the EU for many months, if ever”.

Postponing a vote on the deal would mean that MPS could not table amendments before Mrs May has discussed a delay with Brussels, leaving her able to go there with a straightforward request for a delay without the danger of MPS having already voted for a referendum to ratify the deal or any other complication that amendments could throw up.

If Mrs May returns from Brussels with a long delay already signed off by the EU, MPS in Leave-supporting constituencies could face intense pressure from voters to accept the current deal for fear that Brexit might never happen otherwise.

Some MPS who voted down the deal last week have changed their minds after intense lobbying from constituency parties, with up to 50 Tory MPS said to be facing the threat of deselection if they stand in the way of Brexit.

Mrs May told MPS last week that she would hold a third vote on the Brexit deal by Wednesday at the latest. However, Dr Fox told Sky News: “There would be no point in having the vote if we had no chance of winning.

“I would say to my colleagues, all actions have consequences, and if you really want to deliver the Brexit that we all promised… then we need to back the Prime Minister, because there is no other deal on offer.”

But he added: “It would be difficult to justify having a vote if you knew you were going to lose it.”

Speaking on the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hammond said the vote would “not definitely” happen, adding: “We will only bring the deal back if we are confident that enough of our colleagues, and the DUP, are prepared to support it so that we can get it through Parliament.

“We’re not just going to keep presenting it if we haven’t moved the dial. But what’s happened since last Tuesday is that a significant number of colleagues, including some prominent ones who have gone public, have changed their view on this and decided that the alternatives are so unpalatable to them that they, on reflection, think that the Prime Minister’s deal is the best way to deliver Brexit.”

Asked if sufficient MPS had changed their minds to alter the result of the vote, he said: “Not yet… it’s a work in progress.”

He said it was “now physically impossible to leave on March 29” but Britain could still leave the EU in “April, May or June” if MPS voted for a deal now.

However, he warned: “If we’re unable to do that; if we cannot bring together a majority to support what in my view is a very good deal for Britain, then we will have to look at a longer extension, and [then] we’re in uncharted territory.

“I can’t tell you how long it will be before we can find a way forward that commands a majority in Parliament and allows us to deliver the Brexit that we promised to deliver.”

Huw Merriman, parliamentary private secretary to Mr Hammond, said that Eurosceptics who had made it their “life’s work” to get Britain out of Europe should vote for Mrs May’s deal, adding: “I’m saying to them, vote for disappointment over disaster.”