MAY GOES TO THE WIRE ON BREXIT VOTE
THERESA May last night promised that a revamped Brexit deal is “within grasp” after the latest round of talks with EU chiefs.
The Prime Minister announced that the expected “meaningful vote” for Parliament to approve her Withdrawal Agreement will be held on March 12, just 17 days before the Brexit departure date.
Mrs May finally confirmed the two- week delay for presenting her deal to MPs yesterday when speaking to journalists on a flight to the EU- Arab States summit in Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt.
She said: “My team will be back in Brussels again this coming week.
“As a result, we won’t bring a meaningful vote to Parliament this week, but we will ensure that happens by March 12.
“But it is still within our grasp to leave the European Union with a deal on March 29.”
The Prime Minister is expected to use a series of meetings with other EU leaders on the fringes of the main summit gathering to seek support for her drive to win legal assurances that the UK cannot be trapped in an EU customs union.
Rebels
She is expected to update MPs on her progress tomorrow ahead of a fresh series of votes on her approach to the final stages of the Brexit negotiations on Wednesday.
Mrs May also hit back at a trio of pro- Brussels Cabinet rebels demanding the right to vote against a no- deal Brexit.
Business Secretary Greg Clark, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd and Justice Secretary David Gauke – all Cabinet Remainers – signalled they are ready to support an amendment designed to avoid a no- deal Brexit.
Mrs May said: “I have recognised and others have recognised that there are strong views that are held on this issue.
“What we are collectively doing as a Government and as a Cabinet is working to get that deal.
“Collective responsibility has not broken down. What we’ve seen around the Cabinet table and the country at large is strong views on the issue of Europe and that is not a surprise to anybody.
“We have around the Cabinet table collective, not just responsibility, but desire to actually ensure we leave the European Union with a deal.
“That’s what we’re working for, that’s what I’m working for and we will be continuing to do so.”
Loyalist politicians hit out at the rebels yesterday.
One furious unidentified Cabinet minister was yesterday quoted as saying: “My colleagues are totally undermining the Prime Minister. They should be sacked now.” Another said: “It’s astonishing disloyalty after Amber Rudd was given another Cabinet job by the PM.”
A third was quoted as saying: “This behaviour is completely outrageous. The PM cannot give in.”
Mrs May held talks with Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, yesterday and is due to speak with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel today as she bids to strike what has been labelled a “deal in the desert”.
The 5,000- mile round trip to Egypt comes after Mrs May met European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker in Brussels, and ahead of more Brexit votes in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Pro- Brussels MPs were furious
last night, pledging a new attempt this week to bind the Government into ruling out a no- deal departure.
Labour MP Yvette Cooper last night vowed to lead a fresh attempt by MPs to try to block a no- deal Brexit.
She will seek to amend a Commons motion, expected to be tabled by the Government on Wednesday, in an attempt to pave
the way for backbench legislation being drafted to outlaw the possibility of leaving without a deal.
Describing the delay as “shambolic and irresponsible”, Mrs Cooper said: “She cannot just keep drifting and dithering like this or there is a real risk our whole country tumbles off a cliff edge into a chaotic no- deal that no one is
ready for and that would hit food prices, medicine supplies, manufacturing and security.” Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer also criticised the Prime Minister’s announcement.
He said: “This decision to further delay the meaningful vote is the height of irresponsibility and an admission of failure.
“Theresa May is recklessly running down the clock in a desperate attempt to force MPs to choose between her deal and no deal. Parliament cannot stand by and allow this to happen.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said: “Theresa May is fast climbing the league table of the most irresponsible politicians our country has ever had.
“Kicking the can down the road will only heighten fears of businesses and people.”
ALMOST three years ago, the British people gave our rulers a clear mandate to deliver independence from Brussels. All too predictably, the politicians have failed to act decisively on that instruction.
Instead, they have indulged in an orgy of cowardly prevarication, enfeebled negotiation and relentless negativity. What should have been an exciting moment in our history has been transformed by their antics into a saga of frustration and fear.
With the deadline for Britain’s departure now barely a month away, the machinations at Westminster are reaching an ugly climax. In the atmosphere of crisis, the Remainer lobby has gone into overdrive, using an array of procedural manoeuvres in its attempt to thwart Brexit.
Crucially this week, MPs will vote on an amendment, put forward by a cross- party alliance headed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, which will effectively enable anti- Brexiteers to seize control of the agenda. Under Cooper’s proposal, unless a Withdrawal Agreement with the EU is swiftly passed by the Commons, then the possibility of a no- deal exit will be removed, Article 50 extended and Brexit delayed.
Given that Remainers predominate in the Chamber, Cooper’s amendment has a strong chance of winning. In fact, even several members of the Cabinet have openly signalled their support for this approach. In an extraordinary weekend article, which made a mockery of any notion of collective responsibility, senior ministers Amber Rudd, David Gauke and Greg Clark demanded Theresa May immediately take No- Deal off the negotiating table.
Reportedly, at least 20 other ministers and 100 Tory MPs back this line, though Cabinet colleagues were furious, especially at Rudd, a key figure in the 2016 Remain campaign. “It is astonishing disloyalty,” said one, while another described her as “the fifth columnist of a stop- Brexit bandwagon”.
Other plots are under way in Parliament. The newly formed Independent Group is largely driven by in its implacable opposition to Brexit. Shaken by the Remainer defections, Labour is moving towards support for a second referendum on Brexit. One of the party’s MPs, Phil Wilson, revealed at the weekend that he has held secret talks with many disaffected Tories to gain backing for an amendment on another vote. “It is a massive step and what’s important is the reach we’re having among Tory MPs,” Wilson declared.
MEANWHILE, Brussels shows no sign of accepting any change to the Withdrawal Agreement, made last autumn. Like the Remainers, what it really wants is the abandonment of Brexit. At the current EU- Arab League summit in Egypt, diplomats from Brussels were dismissive of any breakthrough in the talks on Brexit, adding that if there were a delay in it, it would have to be at least 21 months.
All this adds up to a mess, and Theresa May is partly to blame. Nevertheless, the Government cannot back down now. To falter with the goal of Brexit in sight would be an unforgivable betrayal. As Mrs May herself said at the National Conservative Convention: “We must not, and I will not, frustrate what was the largest democratic exercise in this country’s history.”
The ranks of pro- Remain plotters are trying to subvert democracy. In contrast the Brexiteers, so often unfairly condemned for extremism or intransigence, are trying to ensure that the wishes of the British people are fulfilled. The only course now is to press on with the current strategy of implementing Brexit while trying to gain concessions from the EU. Any of the alternatives would be disastrous.
DELAY would be a national humiliation and the precursor to surrender to the EU. That is precisely why the idea is put forward by the Remainers. Once a pause is agreed, the pro- EU brigade would have the upper hand and all momentum would evaporate from the cause of British freedom. If Parliament cannot accept Brexit now, what is going to change in six months or a year?
Just as dangerous is the call to remove the no- deal option, since such a policy would destroy the Government’s leverage in the vital last days of talks with the EU before the end of March. If Britain cannot walk away from negotiations, Brussels could just dictate terms. Nor would a second vote solve anything. On the contrary, it would worsen divisions and shatter faith in the political system.
In the build up to Brexit, the Remainers are desperately trying to orchestrate a new mood of fear, just as they did before the 2016 referendum. Despite their bleak propaganda, the British economy is performing well, with unemployment at a record low and the public finances in surplus.
The doom- laden hysteria might be misplaced, yet it shows how the anti- Brexiteers are terrified that Britain’s future prosperity outside the EU will expose the emptiness of the European project.
For decades we have been told that our national salvation depends on Brussels. Our success under independence will demolish that myth. It will be like the memorable scene in the Hollywood classic The Wizard Of Oz, when the curtain is pulled back to reveal the “great and powerful” wizard as a hollow fraud.
There is no need for submission, no cause for panic. The politicians should demonstrate the same faith as the British public in our national resilience.
‘ British success will demolish EU myth’