May ‘on bended knee’ to the EU
Eurosceptics warn of humiliation as PM begs for more time with little indication her deal can pass
THERESA MAY risks leading Britain to “national humiliation” by going on “bended knee” to the EU and asking for a Brexit delay, senior Eurosceptics have warned.
The Prime Minister yesterday wrote to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, requesting that Brexit should be delayed until June 30 – three months later than planned.
However, Mr Tusk rejected her requests for an unconditional extension, instead insisting that EU leaders will only grant a short delay if Mrs May’s deal wins the support of MPS next week, in a move that significantly increases the chances of no deal.
It means that the Prime Minister is now pinning her hopes of passing her Brexit deal and preserving her administration on a third meaningful vote on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
If she fails, as many of her own Cabinet believe she will, Brussels will hold an emergency summit with hours to go before the March 29 deadline and offer either a long extension or a no-deal Brexit.
There is growing speculation that either option would mean the end of Mrs May’s time in Downing Street.
In an attempt to win support for her deal, she made a national address from Downing Street last night in which she told MPS that the public had “had enough”.
She said it was “high time” that MPS made a decision about Brexit, adding that Parliament had done “everything possible to avoid making a choice”.
Both Eurosceptic and Remain Tory MPS yesterday suggested Mrs May should quit, with one describing her as the “least popular prime minister in the history of prime ministers”.
Mrs May, who has previously promised 108 times that Britain would leave the EU on March 29, indicated that she would resign if the Government was forced to accept an extension beyond June – either by the European Union or by Parliament.
Mrs May today goes to Brussels for an EU summit where she will press her case for a short Brexit extension amid calls in Europe for a long delay. In a sign that Eurosceptics are becoming increasingly entrenched, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said Britain was facing a “national humiliation”.
He said: “Why are we on bended knee to the EU begging for things we don’t need? Next week should be a simple choice between her deal and no deal.
“If it isn’t, then it will be a national humiliation, we will have placed ourselves in the position of a supplicant.”
Cabinet ministers on both sides of the Brexit debate are increasingly pessimistic about her chances of winning the vote next week. Pro-european Cabinet ministers were furious after the Prime Minister rejected calls for a long extension, with one saying she had given Eurosceptics an “incentive” to vote against her deal. One told The Daily Telegraph: “She has done a complete turn. She is clearly trying to win over Labour MPS. It won’t work, she is losing ERG support. They are pursuing a strategy that is guaranteed to see MV3 [the third meaningful vote] fail.”
On Monday, a cross-party group of MPS pushing for a soft Brexit will try to seize control of the process with a series of votes in the Commons.
Spain, France and Belgium are all understood to be prepared to block an extension unless Mrs May can convince them that she has a credible plan to break the impasse in the Commons.
Cross-party talks descended into ac- rimony as Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, walked out of a meeting with
‘She must know she’s the least popular prime minister in the history of prime ministers’
Mrs May and other leaders because it was attended by Chuka Umunna, of the Independent Group of MPS.
In the Commons, the Prime Minister blamed MPS for rejecting her deal as she unveiled her plans to request a threemonth delay. She said: “This House has indulged itself on Europe for too long. The outcome of a long extension would be endless hours and days of this House carrying on contemplating its navel on Europe and failing to address the issues that matter to our constituents: schools and hospitals and security and jobs.”
She repeatedly said that “as Prime Minister” she could not support a long Brexit delay, which colleagues took as a suggestion that she was willing to quit.
Peter Bone, a Eurosceptic MP, accused her of “betrayal” for attempting to delay Brexit. “History will judge you at this moment,” he told her.
Dominic Grieve, a Tory Remainer and former attorney general, said he had never been more ashamed to be a member of the Conservative Party.
He said: “I have great sympathy for her, I have known her for many years… but I have to say, I could have wept. Wept at her being reduced to these straits, and wept to see her zigzagging all over the place, rather than standing up for what is in the national interest.” Nigel Evans, a Eurosceptic who voted for the Prime Minister’s deal last Tuesday, said her authority was “ebbing away”.
James Gray, a Eurosceptic Tory MP, told her via Channel 4 News: “I’m not happy with the way you and your team have conducted negotiations. I very much hope you will see your way to standing down immediately after that vote.” He then asked the broadcaster: “Why on earth does she want to stay? She must know she’s gone wrong. She must know she’s the least popular prime minister in the history of prime ministers. Why on earth does she want to stay? Time she went.”