May told to be exact about concessions if she wants to salvage withdrawal deal
‘We need the Government to say we can’t have the backstop in anything like its current form’
THERESA MAY must set out exactly what concessions she will seek from the EU if she wants to salvage her Brexit deal, she has been told.
Ministers and MPs have told Downing Street that Brexiteers and the DUP will only help to keep her proposals alive this week if the Prime Minister commits to seeking specific changes from the EU to alleviate MPs’ concerns.
The warnings came amid frantic talks between No 10, ministers and MPs aimed at averting a crisis if a majority of the Commons fails to rally around a solution to save Mrs May’s deal. As fears grow that time is running out to legislate, Downing Street is planning to extend the hours of Commons sittings and keep MPs in Westminster on Fridays as well as provide help with childcare to ensure laws can be passed.
On Tuesday MPs will debate a series of Commons amendments aimed at pushing for different outcomes, including several devoted to removing the option of a no-deal Brexit, or extending the UK’s membership of the EU beyond the March 2019 exit date.
One amendment put forward by Yvette Cooper, the senior Labour MP, and Nick Boles, the Tory former minister, could allow backbenchers to seize control of the Commons timetable to delay Brexit and avoid no deal. Senior ministers who support the proposal are understood to be willing to vote against it on Tuesday, in line with the Government whip, on the basis that they could have an opportunity to rebel at a later date if Mrs May fails to salvage her deal.
Last night, senior Brexiteer and Remainer MPs were thrashing out another possible amendment that would allow Mrs May to return to Brussels with a specific mandate supported by both camps.
A row between John Bercow and the Government could break into the open once again if the Speaker, who will select a handful of the amendments to be debated, ignores those designed to help save Mrs May’s deal.
Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, tabled an amendment calling for the controversial Irish backstop to be replaced with “alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border”. Sir Graham hopes MPs who fear the current deal could leave the UK “trapped” in the backstop could coalesce around the amendment.
But last night one senior Tory figure said Sir Graham’s amendment was too vague. Another said: “A compromise out there over this backstop and [the Brady amendment] is wholly feasible but everybody needs to know, what is [Mrs May’s] position?” Another senior Brexiteer said: “Graham Brady’s amendment is fine but we need the Government to say it’s going to go back to the EU and say we can’t have the backstop in anything like its current form.”
Last night The Observer reported that Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, had told Mrs May in a phone call that she must agree to a permanent customs union as the price of a concession on the backstop.
Mr Boles and Sir Oliver Letwin, who is working with him and Ms Cooper, faced fiery meetings of their local Conservative associations on Friday. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Philip Sagar, Mr Boles’s chairman, says: “People tell me daily that they will not vote Conservative again if he remains our candidate for the next election.”
The Campaign for Conservative Democracy lobby group says it is setting up a legal fund to provide support to associations if they face moves by Conservative Party headquarters to block attempts to deselect pro-Remain MPs.