PM urged to ditch Labour talks and focus on Brexit deal
THERESA MAY has been told by Cabinet ministers that she should end talks with Labour “immediately” and focus on overhauling her Brexit deal and winning round the DUP.
Ministers including Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, and Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, are said to have warned that the talks are “damaging” the Government and the party.
The Prime Minister defended the continuing talks with Labour, saying that while many in Cabinet disagreed with the ongoing discussions, “we have to govern in the national interest” and “this course of action is what the country expects of us”.
Meanwhile, during a meeting in her Westminster office yesterday, Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPS, told Mrs May that Tory MPS wanted her to name a date for her departure.
The executive of the committee subsequently discussed changing the rules to allow a no-confidence vote in her leadership in June. Under the current rules she is protected from another leadership challenge until December. No conclusion emerged last night, and a further meeting to discuss whether to change the rules will take place today.
It came as Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, warned that the forthcoming European elections would pave the way for the rise of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. “What we don’t want to do is resurrect the beast,” he said.
At Cabinet, Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, is said to have warned that the outcome of the negotiations should not “tie the hands” of future Governments amid concerns it could lead to Britain staying in an EU customs
‘We will continue putting our case but ... there has got to be a change in the Government’s approach’
union. He and other ministers suggested that the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill should be amended to add a “time-limit” to the backstop, even though Brussels has repeatedly rejected the approach. Andrea Leadsom, the Commons Leader, is understood to have pushed for “alternative arrangements” involving the use of technology to minimise checks on the Irish border and remove the need for the backstop.
However Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, is understood to have issued a thinly veiled rebuke to Mr Javid, arguing that the Withdrawal Agreement cannot be reopened.
Mrs May is considering bringing her Bill before MPS next week in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock.
She accused Labour of dragging its feet in compromise talks as Jeremy Corbyn said the Government was just “regurgitating” her plan.
Mrs May told senior ministers at a Cabinet meeting yesterday that while talks with the Opposition were “serious” they had hit difficulties over how quickly they should take place and reach a conclusion.
But Mr Corbyn said the Government had so far refused to move on the terms of the Brexit deal that MPS had already rejected three times.
Their comments suggest a breakthrough remains incredibly unlikely and the two sides may well be pivoting towards a blame game ahead of the potential collapse of the talks.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster media briefing: “The PM said discussions with Labour had been serious but had also been difficult in some areas, such as in relation to the timetable for the negotiations. The PM said the Government’s position was that progress needed to be made urgently as it was vital to deliver on the result of the referendum and for the UK to leave the EU as soon as possible.”
But Mr Corbyn said: “We will continue putting our case but quite honestly there has got to be a change in the Government’s approach. They cannot keep on just regurgitating what has already been emphatically rejected three times by Parliament.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Evans, the joint executive secretary of the 1922 committee, said the process for selecting a new leader “can’t start soon enough”.
“I would be delighted if she announced today she was announcing her resignation and we could then have an orderly election to choose a new leader,” he told Today on BBC Radio 4.
“I believe the only way we’re going to break this impasse properly is if we have fresh leadership of the Conservative Party.”
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-brown, the committee treasurer, said he was “very unhappy” at the prospect of European elections almost three years after the referendum and would “wait and see” if he was ready to go out and campaign.