May wins Cabinet backing for EU exit deal
PM warns Tories to vote for her deal or risk Brexit not happening at all
THERESA MAY last night secured Cabinet backing to finalise a deal on the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and warned Tory Eurosceptics that Brexit itself could be at risk unless they back it.
The Prime Minister avoided any immediate resignations from her top team following a marathon five-hour meeting in which there was “long, detailed and impassioned debate” and around ten senior Ministers were said to have expressed reservations about the Brexit deal.
Mrs May also faces a mammoth battle to get the agreement through the House of Commons, amid rising Tory and Democratic Unionist Party anger at the concessions she made to cut a deal.
In a televised statement outside Number 10 after Ministers toasted the deal with a glass of wine, Mrs May said it “was the best that could be negotiated”.
“I firmly believe, with my head and my heart that this is a decision which is in the best interests of the United Kingdom.”
And, in a warning to MPs who may be thinking of voting it down in Parliament next month, she said they faced a choice between the agreement on the table, a chaotic no deal scenario, or even no Brexit at all.
“When you strip away the detail the choice before us is clear – this deal which delivers on the vote of the referendum, which brings back control of our money, laws and borders, ends free movement, protects jobs, security and our Union, or leave with no deal or no Brexit at all,” she said.
Following her statement, the EU said Brexit withdrawal negotiations had concluded and the next step in the process can begin, with a special EU summit mooted for November 25.
MPs were last night poring over the 585-page long Withdrawal Agreement and seven-page outline political declaration on the future relationship.
Some of the key demands of Brexiteers were not met by the deal, including the UK having a right to unilaterally end the “backstop” arrangement to maintain a soft Irish border if a trade deal is not reached.
Instead, an arbitration panel of two UK and two EU members, as well as one independent member, will agree on when it will end, but Brussels will be bound to act in good faith, in what was painted as a significant concession by senior Government officials.
I firmly believe with my head and my heart this is in our best interests. Prime Minister Theresa May
They admitted there would be new checks between the UK and Northern Ireland if the backstop came into force, in a move which will infuriate the DUP.
The deal also contained a provision by which the UK could choose to extend the standstill transition period beyond the end of 2020 – as long as they decide by June that year. Officials claimed as victory a commitment to zero tariffs and no quotas for goods traded between the UK and the EU, but appeared ready to ditch key Chequers trade plans.
THERESA MAY’S task of getting the Brexit deal through Parliament appeared to get tougher yesterday as Scottish Tories joined the backlash at the concessions she has made to agree a withdrawal deal with the EU.
All 13 Scottish Conservative MPs including Cabinet Minister David Mundell voiced unease about the treatment of fisheries in any post-Brexit arrangement, warning the Prime Minister in a joint letter that they could not support a deal which failed to restore “complete control and full sovereignty” over UK waters.
In the letter, the MPs warn: “We could not support an agreement with the EU that would prevent the UK from independently negotiating access and quota shares... We also cannot stay in the Common Fisheries Policy after December 2020.”
Senior Government officials admitted the issue of fishing rights was not addressed in the Withdrawal Agreement and would form part of negotiations on a future trading relationship.
It later become clear that Mr Mundell was not going to resign from the Cabinet, despite reportedly having serious doubts about the blueprint. He said he was satisfied the plan would mean the UK was leaving the Common Fisheries Policy in 2020 and becoming an independent coastal state.
But if Scottish Tories follow through on their threat to vote against the deal, it will make Mrs May’s life even harder amid potential opposition from scores of Tory Brexiteers and a handful of Remainer colleagues, the 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs, and Labour.
Potential Labour rebels thought to be among those who could back the PM’s deal also told
The Yorkshire Post yesterday that they would wait to see the detail before committing.
Senior Ministers met amid a storm of condemnation for the proposed deal from Brexit-backing Tories, with prominent Leaver Peter Bone warning Mrs May in the Commons that she risked losing the support of “many Conservative MPs and millions of voters across the country”.
And Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the influential European Research Group of Tories, urged colleagues to reject the blueprint. He said the plan is “profoundly undemocratic” and would lock the UK into the EU’s rules.
In a letter to colleagues, Mr Rees-Mogg said the deal would see the UK hand over £39bn to the European Union for “little or nothing in return”.
The arch-Brexiteer also said the deal was unacceptable to unionists because of its treatment of Northern Ireland and broke Tory manifesto commitments.
In a call for revolt on the Tory benches, he said: “For these reasons I cannot support the proposed agreement in Parliament and would hope that Conservative MPs would do likewise.”
The Prime Minister will require a simple majority of the 650 MPs to vote in favour of her deal when it is put before Parliament next month.
But this will prove anything but simple, and whether she can get enough MPs into the aye lobby is now arguably the biggest question in Brexit politics.
Brexit has left both the Tories and Labour divided between those who support leaving and those who do not, and various nuanced factions in between.
While there are 650 MPs, seven Sinn Fein MPs do not take their Westminster seats and the Speaker and his three deputies do not vote. So the magic number Theresa May needs to meet or surpass is 320.
Since the 2017 General Election, her party has had 315 seats, which leaves them short of a working majority alone but ahead of Labour on 257 and the SNP on 35. This is why the Tories entered into a “confidence and supply” deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, which has 10 MPs who can take her Government over the line.
But she currently faces open revolt from both the DUP and Brexiteer and Remain wings of her party.
The Prime Minister may well need to extend an olive branch to Labour, which also has its own divisions between those like Chuka Umunna who oppose Brexit, those like Don Valley MP Caroline Flint who support it reluctantly because their constituents voted to leave, or those like Kate Hoey who are ardent Brexiteers.
Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench position is that they will not support a deal that does not meet its six tests, which include safeguarding worker and consumer rights and providing the “exact same benefits” as membership of the Customs Union and Single Market.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier last night refused to be drawn on what would happen if MPs rejected the Brexit deal. He said: “The British Government has taken today, this evening, its responsibility.
“Now everybody on both sides have to take their responsibility.”