ENTER THE TORY BREXIT WRECKERS
Just when the nation dared hope our interminable nightmare might end on October 31st...
TORY rebels are plotting to sabotage Boris Johnson’s Brexit by forcing a delay to the October 31 leaving date – even if the Prime Minister wins Commons support for a deal with the EU next weekend.
Former Cabinet Ministers Philip Hammond and Dominic Grieve are central to moves to compel Mr Johnson to send a letter to Brussels asking for an extension to the UK’s membership, regardless of the outcome of this week’s high-stakes Brexit diplomacy.
The plot, which threatens to throw the Prime Minister’s plans for a snap postBrexit Election into disarray, caused fury in No 10, which last night accused
Mr Hammond of trying to ‘sabotage’ Mr Johnson’s ‘do or die’ Halloween exit date.
The move came amid cautious optimism in Downing Street about the prospects of a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations this weekend over a new customs arrangement for Northern Ireland, which could be approved at Thursday’s critical EU summit in time for MPs to vote for it at Saturday’s historic Commons sitting.
Sources said that Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party and the Irish government in Dublin were ‘engaging’ with the idea of removing the need for a border with the Republic of Ireland by keeping the province inside the EU’s customs umbrella while allowing it to benefit from the UK’s post-Brexit trade deals.
However, Tory MPs in the hard-line ERG group and many Ministers remain in the dark about what exactly Mr Johnson has put on the table.
And last night, Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s Westminster leader, repeated his demand that Northern Ireland must leave the EU Customs Union with Great Britain, with No 10 seeking to reassure him by making private promises this was still a negotiation ‘red line’.
The Brexit plan is expected to be discussed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel over dinner in Paris this evening ahead of the Brussels summit.
But without a Commons majority, Mr Johnson will be forced to rely on both Labour rebels and the votes of many of the 21-strong group of former Tory MPs who lost the whip last month when they voted to block a No Deal Brexit.
The Mail on Sunday understands that the group, which includes former Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, is split over whether to vote for the deal – with one prominent member warning that it looked like a ‘pretty hard Brexit’ for Great Britain even if it amounted to a ‘very, very soft Brexit’ for Northern Ireland.
However, there is more of a consensus that Mr Johnson should be forced to delay Brexit, even if he wins MPs’ backing for the deal.
The delay faction, which includes Mr Hammond, argues that the Prime Minister should not be allowed to take the UK out of the EU at the end of the month without the Commons being given more time to examine the deal and pass the necessary legislation.
A source close to the former Chancellor said: ‘There is a distinction between Parliament “approving” the broad outline of a deal in a simple motion and Parliament legislating for a deal.
‘The fact is that the latter is not possible in the time remaining, so the Benn Act will come into force to allow some time to legislate and finalise the deal.’
The source added that the Benn Act – the law passed by pro-Remain MPs to compel Mr Johnson to request a Brexit delay if he had not secured a deal by October 19 – ‘has clearly forced the Prime Minister to finally devote time and energy into securing a deal’.
Last night, in response, a senior Government source said: ‘As Chancellor, Hammond sabotaged the negotiations and sabotaged preparations to leave – now he’s trying to sabotage leaving altogether.
‘His latest move shows that he is not trying to stop No Deal – he is trying to enforce a No Brexit’.
Even one fellow Conservative rebel described Mr Hammond as ‘totally paranoid’.
The rebel ridiculed the former Chancellor, saying he wanted to vote for a delay to Brexit because he feared that Mr Johnson would try to introduce a No Deal Brexit ‘by the back door’ by ‘ crashing’ the deal after the October 19 deadline stipulated by the Benn Act had expired.
But Mr Hammond’s stance was backed by Tory former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who insisted Mr Johnson would have to accept a delay even if his deal passed. Mr Grieve said: ‘He’s going to have to extend. I cannot see how he would be justified in trying to force through a major piece of constitutional legislation, the Withdrawal Agreement Act, in seven days. It’s improper.’
And former Cabinet Office Minister Sir David Lidington said: ‘I’ve always felt there would at least need to be a time where technical legal details had to be hammered out and that was going to take us beyond the end of October.’
Sir David, who was Theresa May’s de facto deputy, also mocked Mr Johnson’s key advisor Dominic Cummings for making ‘Kevin the Teenager- style’ rants, adding: ‘When advisors become a story it’s usually a bad thing for the politician who’s hired them’.
Another of the Tory rebels said: ‘It’s hard to see how he [Mr Johnson] can get all of this done by October 31 realistically.
‘ At a practical level, I think it would be extraordinary if the draft text could be finalised before then and you cannot begin to do the legislation until that’s been done.
‘I don’t see it’s feasible to leave on October 31. I can’t see how we could with confidence pass the necessary motion next Saturday which means that the Benn Act provisions do not apply,’ the rebel added.
‘It might be a technical extension but you still might require a couple of months just to have time to agree the legal text and take the legislation through. I think the letter [to delay] will still be needed.’
Mr Johnson’s Brexit negotiator David Frost was holed up in Brussels talks last night that will continue throughout today before his EU counterpart briefs member states on the progress of talks.
A senior Downing Street source told The Mail on Sunday that there was ‘ medium’ hope of a
‘Hammond is trying to enforce a No Brexit’
breakthrough but insisted that ‘ we’re not about to sell out our core principles’.
There are fears that reopening t he Withdrawal Agreement to remove the hated Northern Irish backstop with Mr Johnson’s new customs plan will mean 11th hour demands from other EU countries when the UK is most vulnerable.
EU sources say Germany’s commissioner Gunther Oettinger has privately suggested hiking the UK’s £39 billion divorce bill in order to make Britain pay for Europe’s No Deal contingency planning. And there are also warnings that Spain could launch a fresh assault on winning concessions over Gibraltar.
If Mr Johnson fails to win a deal or MPs vote down his deal, proRemain MPs are discussing multipleoptions to delay Brexit – including legislating to give Speaker John Bercow the power to send the letter to Brussels or even appointing him as an interim PM by voting down the Queen’s Speech in the week starting October 21 and voting no confidence in the Government.
‘Kevin the Teenager rants from Cummings’
YOU have to hand it to them. WAGS are the gift that so brilliantly, so reliably, keeps on giving. There couldn’t be a better time for Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy to wage war. We’re all desperate for a bit of escapism and this is a blockbuster.
Particularly joyous is the way Cole en posted a trail of fake stories on her private Instagram account while increasingly blocking followers to finally deduce who alone would be in a position to leak them. I wonder who came up with that idea?
Was it one of the army of legal, PR and reputational management brains she and Wayne presumably have on speed dial? I suspect it was more likely Coleen’s very own work, cooked up on the corner sofa, perhaps with a glass of Veuve Clicquot.
The biggest mystery though is why anyone in the position of either woman would decide to use Twitter and Ins tag ram for the battle ground. Such gems as Coleen’s investigative revelation: ‘ It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account’ (those dots… what dramatic tension) or Rebekah’s heartfelt riposte: ‘I’m not being funny but I don’t need the money’, make heavenly reading for the rest of us but surely can’t be doing either woman a jot of good in the long run.
Temporarily they may get the Go Girl! vote but in the long run, given the fact that the whole dispute is about leaks of private information, it’ s a massive own goal. The more anyone posts about themselves on social media, the less defence they will have if and when they want to complain about invasion of privacy in the future. Thoroughly entertaining, yes. But also a marker of our times. It used to be the more famous the person was the more intent they were on remaining private. Sure, we’ve come a long way from when the only three acceptable times to see your name in the papers was in the Hatch, Match and Dispatch columns but, even so, this WAG feud breaks new ground.
Not only have Coleen and Rebekah gathered us all round to watch the fun and games but they’re positioning themselves right out front, speedily tapping out character assassinations with their gel mani’d fingers, and delightedly pressing send.
Does your face lean to the Left... or Right?
THERE’S another, if rather less glam, spat taking place. First Spectator columnist Charles Moore claimed actress Olivia Colman had ‘a distinctly Left-wing face’, now Andrew Marr has hit back in a review of Moore’s latest Thatcher biography, writing that Moore has a ‘Right-wing face’. What a great parlour game – is political ideology aligned to physiognomy? Jeremy Corbyn’s grizzled, snaggle-toothed visage obviously speaks man of t he Left, and could Jacob Rees-Mogg’s throwback appearance ever, even for a second, show him as anything other than man of the Right? But once out of the Commons, can we really tell? David Beckham, Ben Stokes, Maggie Smith, Tess Daly. Who knows?
Perhaps Dominic Cummings could start to use facial recognition technology at the ballot box.
Why I’m besotted with heavenly Shiv
The star of the second season of the most riveting drama on TV – HBO’s Succession – is Shiv. Heavenly Shiv. Everyone fancies her. Men, women, me. Shiv, played by Sarah Snook, is full-bodied allure. She has all the strange, captivating power of the manipulative girl at school – the one who always seemed to know just that much more than you did about everything, including sex.
Pitted against her two older, hopeless brothers in the battle to succeed their all- powerful father, in this seconds ea sonShiv’ s costumes are crucial. Her Jessica Rabbit body slides in and out of limos in a mixture of mannish high-waist pants and turtle necks, making the odd foray into something severe but backless for evening. It’s grown-up sexy. None of the currently fashionable Little House On The Prairie floral frocks for her. But the coup de grace is her loose, flame-haired bob that swings distractingly around her quizzical glance and wickedly mischievous grin, as she lands the next lethal blow. Ivanka Trump has clearly taken note on the hair front. Who’ll steal Shiv’s style next?
The thin end of the wedge for pizza fans
IS NOTHING sacred? How can Pizza Express be threatened with closure? We love Pizza Express, don’t we? Even if the sizes have shrunk, the prices have risen and their salads are even more high-cal than their Margaritas. I, like many of my generation, have eaten more than our body weight of their doughballs alone in the past 40 years. But I hate to think they might go under.
Poor pizza is under fire from all directions. Crucified by the cleaneating school, demonised by the anti-carb brigade, and recently suffering the indignity of removal from t he military’s breakfast options to be replaced by avocado on toast. That’s serious stuff. Pizza Express may find a way to restructure their debt but pizza is becoming an endangered species and we fans need to act fast, before it becomes a global emergency.
Diana will reign Supreme at Glasto
IT’S going to be great to see Diana Ross in the legend slot at next year’s Glasto. The only time I saw her perform live was in the somewhat less egalitarian setting of a dinner Philip Green threw for his birthday at Annabel’s nightclub in Mayfair. She was the real thing.
Gliding in straight off the jet from Vegas, all wigs, sequins and stupendous eyelash- batting, she shimmied around singing all the old favourites to a party of heavyhitters who included a wildly enthusiastic Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate who’s one of the world’s richest men, who jumped up to film her on his iPhone.
Next year’s appearance at Worthy Farm will undoubtedly be equally mesmerising, but a lot more PC.