‘Mayhem’ as Remainer
Cabinet is warned to stay loyal
Political Editor SENIOR ministers were given a warning about Cabinet discipline yesterday after fresh threats of a mutiny by pro-Brussels Tories.
Chief whip Julian Smith reminded members of their duty to accept collective responsibility during the weekly meetings at No10.
His intervention followed reports that up to 40 Tory frontbenchers could quit their posts unless Prime Minister Theresa May gives her MPs a free vote on moves that could lead to a delayed Brexit.
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd was said to be pressing for the free vote after a Commons debate next week.
But sources said no minister raised the demand at No10 yesterday.
They were also said to have not raised any questions when Mr Smith reminded them that all frontbenchers had to support Government policy.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, a Brexiteer, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Michael Gove all argued that a free vote would be “abdicating collective responsibility”, according to one source.
Junior ministers Richard Harrison, Margot James and Tobias Ellwood threaten to quit their posts if the Government backs leaving with no deal. and Deputy Political Editor in Brussels BREXITEERS warned of “mayhem” yesterday as plotting Remainers unleashed plans to sabotage Brexit by seizing power from the Government.
More than half a dozen attempts to derail departure from the European Union were formally launched by Labour and Tory MPs.
They included demands for quitting without a deal to be ruled out, delaying exit day and giving MPs the chance to force a second referendum.
Europhiles want control over parliamentary business to allow them to make fresh demands just days before the UK is due to leave on March 29.
Former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith told the plotters: “If you really support this constitutional nonsense of allowing a backbench group to take over the business and run legislation, if the Labour Party agrees, they have to think carefully what would happen if they were in power and did not have a massive majority.
“This opens the door to mayhem in the Commons and I promise you those who think that the House could act as a government negotiating a trade deal are living in cloud cuckoo land.”
MPs were able to set out rival plans to change the next steps in the Brexit process after Theresa May suffered a historic defeat on her EU divorce deal last week and was forced to come back to the Commons with a Plan B.
Provocative
Chief plotter Dominic Grieve tabled an amendment that would allow MPs to take control of parliamentary business to allow Remainers to launch a last-minute bid to delay Brexit.
Ex-Tory ministers Justine Greening and Sam Gyimah backed the move, along with fellow Tories Phillip Lee, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston, and senior Labour figures.
And support was growing last night for an amendment tabled by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory former minister Nick Boles.
It would secure parliamentary time for a new Bill that would give Mrs May until February 26 to get parliamentary approval for a withdrawal agreement.
If she failed, MPs would be given a vote on whether to extend the Article 50 process that takes the UK out of the EU for nine months to avoid no deal.
Labour opened the door to a second referendum in its plans but refused to say if it backed a fresh vote.
Tory former Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman and Labour’s Jack Dromey tabled an amendment that would rule out a no-deal Brexit.
The West Midlands MPs claimed they were committed to honouring the referendum result but “cannot sanction crashing out of the EU without a deal”.
Labour’s Hilary Benn has tabled an amendment calling for a range of votes on various Brexit options.
Conservative Andrew Murrison was the only MP to put forward proposals that could win over Brexiteers. He submitted fresh plans for a time limit on the Irish backstop.
Brussels finally admitted yesterday it would force Dublin to implement a hard border with Northern Ireland if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal.
A European Commission spokesman said: “I think it is pretty obvious you will have a hard border.”
The EU Parliament’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said Brussels was now ready to listen to Brexit rebels.
Jayne Adye, director of cross-party grassroot campaign Get Britain Out, said the hard border admission, was “inflammatory”. She said: “This provocative and illegitimate talk has the potential to stir up trouble in Northern Ireland. It is particularly inflammatory and insensitive, given the massive car bomb in Londonderry on Saturday.”
A record 32.5 million people are working, a rise of 141,000 in the three months to November. It is the highest level for almost 20 years. In a further tonic for workers, average earnings have soared by 3.4 per cent, the highest for a decade, outpacing inflation, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
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