The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Prime minister in eye of storm as Brexit D-Day looms
As vote on deal looms, PM says note shows backstop is ‘not a threat or trap’
“If it’s rejected, it’s time for a new goverment”
Theresa May yesterday made a last-ditch plea for MPs to back her Brexit deal, after Brussels chiefs issued a letter offering assurances that they do not want the controversial “backstop” to be permanent.
The prime minister said the letter from European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made clear that the backstop was “not a threat or a trap”.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox issued advice that EU assurances on the backstop “would have legal force in international law”, and said the current deal “now represents the only politically practicable and available means of securing our exit from the EU”.
But Mrs May’s hopes that the letter would win over enough MPs to rescue her Withdrawal Agreement looked set to be dashed, as the Democratic Unionist Party – which props up her minority administration – dismissed it as “meaningless”.
“Rather than reassure us, the Tusk and Juncker letter bolsters our concerns,” said DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds, who called on the PM to demand changes to the Agreement.
And Tory MP Gareth Johnson quit as an assistant whip to oppose Mrs May’s plan, saying it was clear there was “no significant change” to it.
The prime minister acknowledged the deal was “not perfect” but urged MPs who had come out against it to give it a “second look”.
She said: “When the history books are written, people will look at the decision of this House tomorrow and ask: did we deliver on the country’s vote to leave the European Union? Did we safeguard our economy, our security and our Union? Or did we let the British people down?”
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said she had failed to secure the assurances she had promised and the government was in “disarray”.
“It’s clear, if the prime minister’s deal is rejected tomorrow, it’s time for a general election, it’s time for a new government,” he said.
Mrs May warned MPs would be behaving with the “height of recklessness” if they rejected her deal in today’s historic vote, when no alternative was on offer which was negotiable and respected the 2016 referendum result.
She said the presidents’ letter provided “valuable new clarifications and assurances” to address the concerns of MPs who fear the backstop, which is designed to prevent a hard border in Ireland, could become a permanent arrangement which the UK could leave only with approval from the EU. She said the letter delivered: A commitment from the EU to begin work on a new postBrexit relationship as soon as the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified.
An explicit commitment that the new relationship does not have to “replicate” the backstop arrangement, under which the UK would remain in a customs union with the EU and be required to observe some of its rules.
Agreement on a fast-track process for a new free trade agreement.
Acceptance that the UK can unilaterally deliver on commitments made to Northern Ireland, including a “Stormont lock” on new EU laws being added to the backstop.
Tory former ministers Nick Boles, Sir Oliver Letwin and Nicky Morgan put forward a plan to give parliament control over the Brexit process if Mrs May loses the vote.
Their European Union Withdrawal Number 2 Bill would give the government three weeks to seek a compromise that can get through the Commons and allow the UK to leave the EU on March 29 as planned.
If that failed, the Liaison Committee, made up of senior backbenchers who chair Commons committees, would be given the job of coming up with its own compromise deal, which the government would be legally required to implement if approved by MPs.
However, Liaison Committee chairman Sarah Wollaston said backbenchers constitutionally “cannot take over conducting a complex international negotiation”.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson criticised “complicated jiggery-pokery” by MPs, warning they were “really playing with fire”.
Andrew Murrison, chairman of the Commons Northern Ireland Committee, tabled an amendment to create a “sunset clause” preventing the backstop extending beyond the end of 2021.