Senior Tories in talks over cross-party push for ‘Norway option’

Influential figures recruit Labour, SNP and other MPs to back emergency motion if May’s deal is voted down

SENIOR Conservatives are in talks with opposition MPs over a “fallback plan” for Brexit in the belief that Theresa May’s deal will be voted down in the Commons.

Influential former ministers are drawing up plans to put a Norway-style deal with the EU to a Commons vote in an emergency motion days after an expected defeat in the “meaningful vote” on the Prime Minister’s plan.

The MPs claim their proposal, which is likely to be fiercely opposed by many Brexiteers, is the only one that could gain the support of a majority of MPs in a bitterly divided Parliament.

They believe it would attract the support of up to 70 Labour rebels if they fail in separate attempts to force a second referendum or declare no confidence in the Government.

Some 75 Labour MPs defied Jeremy Corbyn to support a similar move in June.

One senior figure involved in the planning said the option was now a credible “plan B”.

Another key MP, Nick Boles, who drew up an earlier version of the fallback plan, said: “We are in discussion with Labour MPs and also the SNP and Plaid Cymru.”

An ally of Mrs May who is involved in the planning said Labour MPs would find it easier to walk through the division lobbies with Conservatives once they had been through the “process” of first voting down the Government’s plan and, in some cases, backing a motion for a second referendum.

However, the move is likely to be strongly opposed by many Eurosceptics, who have described the option as a “twilight position” that would keep the UK tied to EU regulations without being able to vote against them in the bloc’s formal structures.

It would leave Mrs May formally unable to deliver on her pledge to control immigration by ending the free movement of EU citizens after Brexit.

Instead, the model would offer the UK a temporary “emergency brake” on immigration, which some experts say could not be used in practice.

Mrs May has insisted her deal is better than the Norway option or the Canada-style free trade agreement that Brexiteers insist is possible without creating a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Under the Norway option, the UK would remain a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), without full EU membership, and be subject to the European Free Trade Association court (EFTA) rather than the European Court of Justice – like Norway.

Mr Boles, who had previously set out a plan to adopt the arrangement for three years in place of the transition period, said a longer-term membership of the EEA was the only alternative to the Prime Minister’s deal that was “realistically achievable in the available time frame.”

He said he would personally support Mrs May’s deal but believed it would be voted down.

He also questioned whether she would deliver on her pledge to end free movement in negotiations over the next few months.

He said: “I would prefer a position where we have a different court which respects sovereignty, a formal role in the process which creates new single market regulations and does have an emergency brake [on immigration]. I prefer all of those things to having the theoretical possibility of complete control over freedom of movement.”

He added of the likely debate on the Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill: “You will have the leader of the Opposition’s amendment, maybe an SNP amendment and presumably a ‘people’s vote’ amendment.

“If, which I think is quite likely, none of the motions have gained a majority, then almost certainly what will happen is there will be a confidence motion by the leader of the opposition … on the following day.

“Assuming the Government won that, which I think it probably would … we would bring a motion to the house … which would then give MPs of all parties … an opportunity to say ‘Actually, given the people’s vote is not happening and t the Government’s deal has been v voted down, what we all want now is to see the Government pursue EEA/ EFTA.’”

‘If none of the motions gain a majority, we would bring a motion to the house to pursue EEA/EFTA’