Stunning new blow for Boris as Amber Rudd quits the Tories
Amid fevered rumours Boris is on the brink of resignation, his chief enforcer tells senior Tory staff: Hold your nerve, act like TV’s Mr Cool – and it’ll be Happy Days!
CABINET Minister Amber Rudd resigned from the Tory Party last night in protest at Boris Johnson’s sacking of the rebel Tory MPs who voted last week to block a No Deal Brexit.
In a devastating parting salvo, the Pensions Secretary — one of only a handful of Remain supporting Ministers in Mr Johnson’s Cabinet — said she thought there was ‘no evidence’ that Mr Johnson was trying to strike a deal with Brussels.
Announcing that she would be standing as an independent Conservative in her Hastings and Rye constituency, Ms Rudd attacked the Prime Minister’s decision to deselect 21 Tory rebels as an ‘assault on decency and democracy’.
Ms Rudd was criticised by her former Remain allies after pivoting to sign up to Mr Johnson’s Cabinet and backing his pledge to leave the EU ‘do or die’ and had been under huge pressure over her ‘pivot.’
Last night Tory sources said her brother Roland, a multimillionaire lobbyist who was a leading figure in the Remain campaign, had exerted ‘ huge amounts of pressure on his sister to walk, it was coming from all sides, her family and the MPs’.
In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Rudd said: ‘I no longer believe leaving with a deal is the Government’s main objective. The Government is expending a lot of energy to prepare for no deal, but I have not seen the same level of intensity go into talks with the European Union.
‘I must also address the assault on decency and democracy that took place last week when you sacked 21 loyal One Nation Conservatives. This short-sighted culling of my colleagues has stripped the Party of broadminded and dedicated Conservative MPs. I cannot support this act of political vandalism’.
Last night a furious No 10 source said: ‘As the polls show, the voters are quite happy for the PM to get rid of people who don’t want us to sort out Brexit. There are plenty of talented younger MPs to replace any deadwood.’
Mr Johnson has been accused of planning to set the EU ‘on fire’ as the only way to keep his grip on power and hit next month’s Brexit deadline.
Amid fevered speculation in Whitehall that the Prime Minister could be on the brink of quitting, his advisers are this weekend plotting to thwart those MPs who voted last week to force Mr Johnson to seek a Brexit extension. One plan is to be so disruptive to the EU that Brussels is obliged to eject us – while a second is to act on new legal advice from a senior QC which No 10 sources say gives them the authority to simply ignore the Commons order.
Mr Johnson has said he would ‘die in a ditch’ rather than obey the MPs, making his resignation seem inevitable if no alternative can be found, unless he breaks the law by simply ignoring the will of MPs.
Many of Mr Johnson’s closest allies believe the battle for Brexit will end up being decided in the Supreme Court. Senior civil servants started making preparations on Friday for Mr Johnson to leave Downing Street as early as tomorrow – giving Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn the chance to form a rival administration.
But No 10 sources insist that Mr Johnson’s immediate resignation is not under consideration.
The Prime Minister will tomorrow make a second attempt to try to break the deadlock by asking the Commons to back a General Election on October 15. But Labour’s opposition to a pre- Brexit poll means he is likely to fail, and one option being considered in Downing Street is for Mr Johnson to trigger a vote of no confidence in himself in order to get an Election.
Under the new ‘kick us out strategy’, if Brussels fails to strike an acceptable deal the UK Government will use legal chicanery to sabotage the EU from within. However, last night a senior source close to chief negotiator Michel Barnier described the plan as ‘desperate’, while another likened Mr Johnson to ‘the drunk at the party’ and accused him of ‘trying to get thrown out by setting the whole house on fire’.
Under the disruption strategy, Mr Johnson’s allies believe that, by refusing to appoint a UK Commissioner to Brussels beyond the end of October, from t he start of November the EU will ‘no longer be legally constituted’ – unless they vote to reduce the number of member countries to 27.
This process would then be vetoed by the UK, which his allies think the EU ‘cannot accommodate’ and would therefore kick the UK out.
After a torrid week of high drama for the Prime Minister, in other developments:
Downing Street sources described as hysterical a warning by former chief prosecutor Lord Macdonald, who said ‘ the l aw should be followed’ by the PM. The crossbench peer said: ‘A refusal in the face of that would amount to contempt of court which could find that person in prison’, adding that it was ‘not an extreme outcome’.
Special adviser to the Government Dominic Cummings told aides to hold their nerve in the face of the Remainer ‘meltdown’ and be ‘cool like Fonzies’ and they would ultimately ‘trounce Corbyn’.
Downing Street plans to suspend Parliament as early as tomorrow evening if MPs vote down Mr Johnson’s second attempt to trigger an election.
Last night, a new poll showed the Conservatives had extended their lead over Labour as pro-Brexit voters return to the party. The Opinium poll for the Observer newspaper puts the Tories on 35, Labour on 25, the Liberal Democrats on 17 and the Brexit Party on 13.
Theresa May emerged as the figurehead in a campaign to reverse Mr Johnson’s controversial purging of rebellious Tory MPs.
Furious Downing Street aides blamed ‘wrecker’ MPs for destroying nascent talks with European capitals about a two-year time limit on the hated EU backstop.
Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom announced that the Tories would run a candidate against John Bercow at the next election, ending his career as Speaker.
Nigel Far age offered the Conservatives a pact to ‘destroy Corbyn’ if Mr Johnson goes for a No Deal Brexit.
Former Chancellor Philip Hammond, who lost the party whip after
‘I cannot support this act of political vandalism’
‘Plenty of talented MPs to replace deadwood’
rebelling last week, accused rivals of trying to ‘smear’ him after The Mail on Sunday was handed a dossier of allegations against him
Leaked Cabinet details showed that Michael Gove is preparing to mobilise 1,600 troops to drive petrol tankers to deal with fuel shortages in the event of no deal.
On Friday evening Mr Cummings warned Government special advisers ‘we have a different interpretation of the legislation’ barring a No Deal Brexit, going even further than the Mr Johnson, who said on Friday that the Bill only obliged the Government to delay our EU departure ‘in theory’.
The source said that, while Mr Corbyn was ‘hiding’ from an Election, Downing Street and Conservative Campaign HQ were ‘ramping up’ preparations for a vote.
Downing Street has begun official negotiations with executives from the BBC, ITV and Sky over live TV electoral events, including a headto-head between Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn.
The source added that Brussels would only grant the UK a Brexit extension if the UK engaged in ‘sincere co-operation’ – which is not the plan. ‘If we engage in obstructive behaviour it would lead to the undermining of EU interests and would leave them questioning the UK’s membership’, the source said.
Lib Dem MEP Luisa Porritt said: ‘Trying to get thrown out by setting the whole house on fire is inconsistent with the Government’s stated aim, which is to negotiate a deal. Boris Johnson increasingly resembles the drunk at the party.
‘His reckless threats risk undermining future trade talks before they have even begun.’
However, the Government source added: ‘ Nobody s hould be in any doubt that we will leave on October 31.’
BORIS JOHNSON’S powerful adviser Dominic Cummings has urged his army of Whitehall aides to hold their nerve and ‘be cool like Fonzie’ over the Prime Minster’s plan to ignore Parliament’s orders to seek an extension to EU membership.
If MPs again block a General Election tomorrow, the Downing Street enforcer warned Government special advisers to prepare for an extraordinary showdown. He said Mr Johnson would refuse to bend to the will of Parliament – and insisted there is a ‘alternative’ legal loophole.
Mr Cummings refused to share details with his henchmen, but said however ‘rough’ it got in the next five weeks, they would ultimately triumph and ‘trounce Corbyn’ – predicting that his political opponents would go into ‘meltdown’.
Mr Cummings confirmed that Parliament will be suspended immediately if MPs do not back going to the polls tomorrow and said ‘they can spend the next four weeks complaining and trying to take us to court’.
He also sought to scotch growing rumours the Prime Minister could resign in an attempt to break the deadlock sparked when Parliament passed the controversial Bill requiring Mr Johnson to get a deal with the EU or extend the Brexit negotiations.
Mr Cummings told his team: ‘The [Westminster] Bubble doesn’t have a clue, we are not going to extend and we are not going to resign.’
He also warned that Mr Johnson’s pro-Brussels critics ‘are going to go into meltdown and you are going to be cool’ in the face of growing outrage at the Government’s hardline position.
‘ I need you to be like Fonzie, because Fonzie is cool,’ he added.
But the 47-year-old aide’s reference to Henry Winkler’s character in 1970s American sitcom Happy Days baffled many of the aides who are in their 20s. A similar quote was used in Quentin Tarantino’s blockbuster Pulp Fiction – but even that is 25 years old.
A source said: ‘About four people got the joke originally, but the point was very clear: hold your nerve, let them all freak out and don’t panic. Plus he has a trick up his sleeve.’
At their weekly Friday-night gathering, Mr Cummings told Whitehall’s 120 political aides: ‘We will not be going to Brussels and asking for an extension.
‘MPs will have one more chance on Monday to do the right thing or we are going to send them home that evening and they can spend the next four weeks taking us to court and complaining. It will then be us going to the European Council next month and we will not be asking for an extension.’
Last night a senior Downing Street source confirmed the plan to The Mail on Sunday, launching a blistering assault on both the socalled ‘ group think’ within the Westminster Bubble and Tory rebel ringleader Dominic Grieve, who masterminded the law to force Downing Street to delay Brexit in the case of No Deal.
The source said: ‘ The Bubble seems to think we are going to do what Grieve wants. We won’t.’
The cross-party Bill championed by Mr Grieve requires the PM to beg Brussels to delay Brexit until January unless a deal is agreed by October 19.
Downing Street sources say multiple QCs were being consulted about how the Government could get round the law, but the legal advice was being kept secret.
Mr Cummings’ suggestion on Friday that ‘we have a different interpretation of the legislation’ went further than the Prime Minister’s controversial comment that the Bill only obliged the Government to delay our EU departure ‘in theory’.
However when probed by aides he said he was ‘not going to get into it now’ or explain what he saw as a loophole in Parliament’s demand.
Mr Cummings is understood to be keeping this ‘different interpretation’ restricted to Mr Johnson and just a handful of Downing Street staff, who are meeting this weekend for crisis plotting.
However not everyone who attended Friday’s meeting was convinced Mr Cummings is in control of the situation, with one suggesting he was becoming increasingly ‘delusional’ about what the Government is up against. ‘He just kept saying, it’s going to be OK and we are going to trounce Corbyn,’ the source said. ‘He was very light on the details of how, though.’
Downing Street also faces growing disquiet from the Tory benches over their Brexit strategy, with one MP breaking cover to warn there would be mass resignations if Mr Johnson attempted to bypass Parliament’s orders.
Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hol
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‘Our opponents will go into meltdown’
linrake tweeted: ‘Any media speculation about Govt ignoring legislation is nonsense. Even if it was under consideration, which I’m sure it’s not, you would see a very significant number of Conservative MPs resigning the whip, including myself.’
The Mail on Sunday also understands that No 10 have put Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith on ‘resignation watch’ after a furious row over Cabinet access to Government legal advice. Mr Smith
asked Mr Johnson if he would share the advice from lawyers about suspending Parliament during a Cabinet conference call last weekend, with the PM agreeing. However the request was later blocked, with Ministers pointing the finger at Mr Cummings for the decision.
Last night anti-No Deal MPs confirmed that they would be hiring their own legal team to make sure Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings comply with Parliament’s demands.
One rebel told Sky News it was a ‘necessity’ because the Prime Minister had ‘no intention of complying with the law’.
Mr Johnson was also warned by one Tory Member of the Scottish Parliament that he would have to resign if he wished to ignore the Brexit delaying bill.
Adam Tonkins, a former law professor, said ‘Irrespective of what we think about Brexit, or the PM, surely we can all agree on one fundamental principle: the Government is bound to obey the law.
‘If the law compels the PM to act in a certain way, and if the PM refuses so to act, he has only one option: to resign his ministry. It really is as simple as that.’
And Jeremy Corbyn hit out: ‘We need a clear statement from the Prime Minister that he is going to abide by that Act of Parliament.’