Too little too late: MPS spurn May’s ‘last chance’ for Brexit
●Prime Minister offers vote on second referendum if Commons backs her bill
Theresa May’s final plea to MPS to back her Brexit deal fell flat after supporters of a second EU referendum rejected her offer of a House of Commons vote on whether to hold one.
The government is now on course for an even bigger defeat than the last time the Brexit deal was voted on, in what is likely to be the disastrous final act of Mrs May’s premiership.
As part of a “new deal” on Brexit, the Prime Minister offered to give MPS a choice between a temporary version of Labour’s proposed customs union with the EU or the government’s trade plans, as well as a say on whether to put her deal to the public.
Warning there was“one last chance” to pass a Brexit deal and “end this corrosive debate”, she also made a series of commitments to keep Northern Ireland bound to the Union and ensure UK workers’ rights and environmental protections do not fall below EU standards.
But the package was rejected by Labour and the DUP, as well as the SNP and the Liberal Democrats, and last night a growing number of Conservative MPS – who caved in to government pressure over the course of three “meaningful votes” in the
House of Commons – were saying they would again oppose the deal.
They included Boris Johnson, the most likely candidate to succeed Mrs May. He tweeted that the plans are “directly against our manifesto – and I will not vote for it. We can and must do better – and deliver what the people voted for”.
With the Conservatives set for a heavy defeat in tomorrow’ s European elections, rejection of the Prime Minister’s Brexit legislation could trigger demands for her immediate resignation, even though she has promised to set out a timetable for her departure within a fortnight.
“I have tried everything I possibly can to find away through,” Mrs May said in a highly personal appeal to MPS. “I offered to give up the job I love earlier than I would like.”
Offering a commitment as part of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) to let MPS decide whether to hold a second EU referendum, Mrs May said she recognised “the genuine and sincere strength of feeling across the House on this important issue”.
Downing Street did not rule out Tory MPS being given a free vote on a second EU referendum, but made clear she continued to oppose it and warned it would add to the growing anger at politicians.
“Look at what this debate is doing to our politics,” she said in a speech at PWC headquarters in London.
“Extending it for months more – perhaps indefinitely – risks opening the door to a nightmare future of permanently polarised politics.
“Look around the world and consider the health of liberal democratic politics.”
The Prime Minister also warned that rejecting the WAB when it is put before MPS in the first week of June would force the country to choose between revoking Article 50 to stop Brexit, or leaving the EU without a deal.
“Reject this deal and leaving the EU with a negotiated deal any time soon will be dead in the water,” she said.
In a final plea to MPS, Mrs May concluded: “I say with conviction to every MP of every party – I have compromised. Now I ask you to compromise too.”
But her appeal was rejected from all sides. First Minister Ni cola Sturgeon said the Prime Minister had“completely failed to commit to put the deal back to the people in a second referendum. The SNP will not support that.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed the Prime Minister’s offer as “largely a rehash of the government’s position in the cross party talks that failed to reach a compromise last week”.
He added: “We won’t back a repackaged version of the same old deal – and it’s clear that this weak and dis in tegrating government is unable to deliver on its own commitments.”
Leading Labour voice sin the campaign for a second EU referendum said they had not been won around either, with Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray calling Mrs May’s offer a “con trick”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said the attempt to win cross-party support for the WAB was “doomed to failure” and Mrs May’s authority was “draining away” while the government’s allies in the DUP were also scathing.
Jacob Rees-Mogg posted on Twitter that the proposals were “worse than before and would leave us bound deeply in to the EU. It is time to leave on WTO terms.”
And Scottish Tor y MP Ross Thomson, who voted for the Prime Minister’s deal at the third attempt, said: “I will not support the PM’S new deal that enables a second EU referendum. To do so only serves to do the SNP’S dirty work for them with their Indyref2 drive.”
‘T he biggest problem with Britain today is its politics.”
Finally, Theresa May yesterday found a way to unite the country. The definition of “Will of the People” is a contentious issue, but the Prime Minister’s summation of the “Mood of the People” was spot on.
However, her next words – “we can fix that” – were rather optimistic.
She and her government have tried, tried and tried again – just like Robert the Bruce’s famous spider – to come up with a Brexit deal that satisfies a majority of MPS – and have failed each time.
Ahead of what should be the fourth and final attempt early next month, May has in desperation offered a binding vote in the Commons on a second referendum if MPS agree to her deal.
The indications for May were bleak yesterday, with everyone from hard Brexiteers like Conservative MP Jacob Rees-mogg and some Tories who previously voted for the deal to Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon signalling opposition.
But it is a sign that at last May is starting to realise there is only one way to break the deadlock – and that is by putting the issue back to the people. Politicians have recently all too often fallen into the trap of treating “the people” as a monolith, as if we all think the same thing, and also of conflating their own views with those of this mythical nation of sheep.
No-deal Brexiteers seem particularly sure about what “the people” think but, curiously, are also among those most vociferously opposed to actually finding out. Like May, they should start to realise that a second referendum is necessary. It is a considerable stretch to say the 2016 vote showed support for no-deal Brexit, which is a very different prospect to the vision painted by Leave campaigners at the time.
A no-deal Brexit needs its own clear and unequivocal mandate. When faced with the available options, perhaps the British public would vote for it and, if that truly turns out to be the “Will of the People”, then, despite the severe economic consequences of such a move, that’s what should happen.
However, if Conservative hardliners manage to replace May with one of their own, who then allows the UK to leave the EU in October without a deal and things go anything like as badly wrong as some experts predict, it is likely that many people will feel angry, tricked even. And Britain’s biggest problem will suddenly become much, much worse.