Theresa May
PM may allow MPs to vote on SEVEN options – including a second referendum and cancelling Brexit – if her deal fails next week, sparking fury from Leavers who brand plot a ‘national humiliation’
Theresa May was today accused of ‘declaring open war’ on her own Eurosceptic MPs by promising a free vote on a second referendum or revoking Article 50 if her Brexit deal is killed off next week.
Downing Street will ask MPs from all parties to help find her a Plan B as Tory rebels said their ‘isolated’ leader should ‘name a date’ for her resignation after failing to deliver Brexit for March 29.
Mrs May is expected to hold a vote to gauge support among MPs for the seven main paths for Brexit: The PM’s deal, No Deal, a second referendum, Labour’s preferred customs union deal, a Norway-plus EEA deal, a Canada-plus free trade deal or revoking Article 50 and staying in the EU.
Brexiteers are furious because
Tory MP Steve Baker, the ERG’s deputy chairman, said today: ‘National humiliation is imminent through these indicative votes. The wrong Conservatives have the levers of power’. Michael Fabricant tweeted: ‘If this is true, has Theresa May now decided to declare open war on ALL her backbenchers’. Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh said: ‘This is the most ludicrous, childish and unrealistic idea I have ever seen. Utterly unfit’.
Treasury minister Liz Truss also said she would oppose the move as Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were seen outside Downing Street today.
Confirming the PM’s Plan B Business Secretary Greg Clark, one of the ‘gang of four’ senior remainers in the cabinet, said: ‘If doesn’t get passed then the Government will facilitate the ability for Parliament to express a majority of what it would approve. I think that is the right step’.
The row came as the DUP appeared to shred any hopes Mrs May had of getting her deal through as Westminster leader Nigel Dodds blasted the PM’s ‘inexcusable’ TV address on Wednesday and said she was ‘far too willing to capitulate’ during negotiations with the EU.
He said: ‘The Prime Minister missed an opportunity at the EU Council to put forward proposals which could have improved the prospects of an acceptable withdrawal agreement and help unite the country. She has now agreed with the EU to kick the can down the road for another two weeks and humiliatingly revoke her oft-stated pledge that the UK would leave the EU on March 29’.
On her decision to point the finger at MPs for the Brexit stalemate he added: ‘Lectures by the Prime Minister putting the blame on others cannot disguise the responsibility her government bears for the current debacle’.
Earlier the Prime Minister summoned cabinet ministers including Liam Fox, Philip Hammond and Stephen Barclay to No 10 for crisis talks. Tonight she will head to Chequers and is expected to focus on wooing Tory remainers and Labour rebels after Conservative Brexiteers and the DUP appeared to desert her.
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Brexiteer Tory leadership candidates Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were outside the Cabinet Office today as Mrs May announced her Plan B
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Earlier Mrs May summoned ministers Liam Fox, Stephen Barclay and Philip Hammond to Downing Street today as she fights to save her deal