Theresa May: don't blame me for Brexit crisis, blame MPs
PM faces calls for resignation after blaming Commons for delay
to UK’s exit from EU
Heather Stewart and Jessica Elgot
Wed 20 Mar 2019 22.02 GMT Last modified on Thu 21 Mar 2019
01.10 GMT
Theresa May is facing a furious backlash from her own
backbenchers and calls for her resignation after she blamed squabbling MPs for
delaying Brexit.
In a defiant statement on Wednesday night she told the
British public: “I am on your side,” and now hopes to force her deal through
parliament next week at the third time of asking.
Less than an hour earlier, she had been warned in a private
meeting with Conservative MPs that her bid to delay leaving could end up losing
her even more votes from her own party. “She is going into an ever narrower
cul-de-sac,” said one former minister.
Speaking in Downing Street in a televised address, May said
the three-month Brexit delay she had earlier in the day formally requested from
EU27 leaders was “a matter of great personal regret for me” – and she would not
countenance a longer extension of article 50.
With just nine days to go before Britain is due to leave the
EU, she laid the blame for the crisis squarely at the door of parliament.
“Of this I am absolutely sure: you the public have had
enough. You’re tired of the infighting. You’re tired of the political games and
the arcane procedural rows.
“Tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit, when
you have real concerns about your children’s schools, our national health
service, knife crime. You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and
done with. I agree. I am on your side. It is now time for MPs to decide,” she
said.
Before her Downing Street statement, the Labour leader,
Jeremy Corbyn, had called for her to reach out and try to form a cross-party
consensus.
He was among senior politicians invited to a meeting on
Wednesday to discuss the next steps – but walked out, after finding Chuka
Umunna of the breakaway Independent Group in the room. Corbyn later spoke to
the prime minister on the phone for 20 minutes.
May’s plea came after another extraordinary day at
Westminster, on which she finally conceded the government had run out of time
to leave the European Union with a deal by 29 March.
Her statement was delayed by more than 20 minutes as she met
around 20 MPs in parliament, many of whom had switched to vote for her Brexit
deal at the second vote.
One MP described it as their “worst day as a member of this
party” and said May had faced unrestrained anger at the meeting, including from
party moderates warning against a Brexit delay.
Tory sources said David Evennett MP had told May that if she
did not resolve the crisis “your time will have come to an end”. Fellow MP
Nigel Evans also signalled he believed she should step down.
Several MPs, including Stephen McPartland and Ben Bradley,
said the prime minister’s request to delay article 50 had made it actively more
difficult for them to back her deal at the next vote.
“I have never been in a meeting like it, the atmosphere was
extraordinary,” one MP said. “She looked like Alice in Wonderland when she
drank that potion, shrinking in her chair.”
MPs said they believed May’s speech blaming her colleagues
for the impasse had been counterproductive. “It might be true but you don’t
bloody say it,” one former minister said. Another MP accused her of “acting
like President Trump”.
Other MPs accused May of irresponsibly stoking public anger
against them, at a time when many already feel under threat.
Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, tweeted:
Wes Streeting MP
✔
@wesstreeting
· 12h
Replying to @wesstreeting
There is only one question that EU27 leaders should ask
@theresa_may at the EU summit: who do you speak for? It’s not Parliament. It’s
not the country. She has not one shred of credibility left.
Wes Streeting MP
✔
@wesstreeting
I’ve thought long and hard before saying this, but @theresa_may
knows that MPs across the House are subjected to death threats - some very
credible. Her speech was incendiary and irresponsible. If any harm comes to any
of us, she will have to accept her share of responsibility.
The Wigan MP, Lisa Nandy, one of those Labour MPs whom Tory
whips were hoping to win over in next week’s vote, called May’s language
“dangerous and reckless”.
The prime minister will now have to travel to Brussels on
Thursday to make the case for a delay – and then intends to make another
attempt to ram her twice-defeated deal through the House of Commons next week.
Downing Street hopes the prospect of a no-deal Brexit will
concentrate the minds of Labour MPs, particularly those in leave-voting seats
who are opposed to a second referendum.
Just moments before May stood up to address febrile MPs
about her plans on Wednesday, Downing Street published the text of the letter
she had sent to the European council president, Donald Tusk, asking for a
three-month delay to Brexit.
She had come under intense pressure from leavers in her
cabinet and on the Tory backbenches not to countenance a longer extension to
the article 50 process – and appeared to hint that she would rather step aside
than implement a longer delay.
“As prime minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any
further than 30 June,” she said. Her spokesman afterwards refused to say whether
that meant she was prepared to step down in those circumstances.
Struggling to be heard in a raucous House of Commons, May
told MPs: “The outcome of a long extension would be endless hours and days of
this house carrying on contemplating its navel on Europe.”
Corbyn accused May of having “no plan”, and embarking on a
reckless course. “We are now in the midst of a full-scale national crisis,” the
Labour leader said.
And the prime minister faced strongly worded criticism from
both sides of her own party. Brexiters accusing her of betraying the result of
the referendum. On the other hand, the former attorney general Dominic Grieve
said: “I have never felt more ashamed to be a member of the Conservative party,
or to lend her my support.”
Tusk said that the EU27’s heads of state or government would
be likely to agree in principle at the summit on Thursday to an extension up to
23 May or 30 June – but only if May could find a majority in the Commons next
week.
That sets up a nail-biting next few days, with Downing
Street racing to win approval for May’s deal, and then hold a vote in both
houses of parliament to change the exit date set in the EU Withdrawal Act.
May held a summit in Downing Street on Wednesday morning
with Eurosceptic cabinet ministers, including Andrea Leadsom, Liam Fox, Penny
Mordaunt and Michael Gove and converted remainers such as Liz Truss and Gavin
Williamson.
Sources said it was the same group who had met in Leadsom’s
office the previous night to discuss serious concerns about the possibility of
a long extension. Wednesday’s meeting was described as “supportive” of the
prime minister’s course of action.
Those who attended left feeling reassured that a very long
extension was no longer the automatic default should her deal fail to pass
again next week, a cabinet source said.
Cabinet remainers were blindsided when reporters were
briefed early on Wednesday morning that May would not request a longer
extension this week.
“This has a chance of seriously backfiring,” said one
cabinet source. “It did look like some of the hard Brexiters may yet resign
themselves to voting for the deal because of the threat of a long extension,
but this letter and the response from Tusk plays into the Brexiters’ narrative
that they won’t be bounced into voting for the deal.”
May is expected to address the first session of the EU
summit on Thursday before a discussion by EU leaders on the article 50
extension.
May’s letter to Tusk suggested she hopes that once EU
leaders have formally adopted the agreement she struck with Jean-Claude Juncker
in Strasbourg earlier this month, the Speaker, John Bercow, will agree to let
her call another vote.
Bercow threw the government’s plans into disarray on Monday,
when he invoked a longstanding parliamentary precedent to say that she could
not bring the deal back to parliament unchanged, after it was rejected by
majorities of 230 in January, and 149 last week.
Theresa May blames MPs for Brexit delay
The UK prime minister says delay was ‘a matter of great
personal regret.’
By TOM
MCTAGUE AND JACOPO BARIGAZZI 3/20/19,
10:07 PM CET Updated 3/21/19, 4:49 AM CET
LONDON — Theresa May blamed MPs for her request to delay
Brexit for three months, warning the public is fast losing patience with the
"political games” in Westminster.
In a rare address to the nation Wednesday night from inside
No. 10 Downing Street, the U.K. prime minister said her application for an
extension to the Article 50 negotiating period was "a matter of great
personal regret" but is necessary to deliver Brexit.
The short five-minute address came after another day of high
drama in Westminster in which she hinted she would quit rather than delay
Brexit any further.
Speaking from behind a lectern inside No. 10, the prime
minister said: "You the public have had enough ... I agree, I am on your
side." She added: "You asked us to get on with it, and that is what I
am determined to do." A longer delay would only serve to "give more
time for politicians to argue," she said.
May's statement to the nation came after she warned MPs
earlier in the day she is not prepared "as prime minister" to delay
Brexit any further than three months.
“Prime Minister May’s proposal until the 30th of June, which
has its merits, creates a series of questions of a legal and political nature”
— Donald Tusk
The remark sparked immediate speculation she will quit if
parliament votes down her deal for a third time, leaving only no-deal Brexit or
a second request for a much longer extension the remaining options without
halting Brexit altogether.
Extending beyond July would mean the U.K. taking part in the
election for the European Parliament in May — a prospect May said is
"unacceptable."
Responding to May's request for a short extension to the end
of June, European Council President Donald Tusk said this would only be granted
if the House of Commons passed the prime minister's deal before March 29.
Tusk's intervention effectively presents MPs with a choice between May's deal,
no-deal and an uncertain lengthy extension, which will be determined by EU
leaders.
In his statement, Tusk said details about an extension
remain to be discussed but that EU27 leaders could not make any decisions until
the House of Commons votes to approve the Withdrawal Agreement and accompanying
Political Declaration.
“Prime Minister May’s proposal until the 30th of June, which
has its merits, creates a series of questions of a legal and political nature,”
Tusk said. “Leaders will discuss this tomorrow.”
At a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday evening, there
was a majority in favor of granting a shorter extension — up to May 22, just
ahead of the European election — according to EU diplomats.
“Expect [leaders at European] Council to go short,"
said one diplomat, "Council is clearly done with being made responsible
for Tory party management. That’s May’s task.” Though a second diplomat
stressed that the final decision was up to EU27 leaders.
In her letter, May said she hopes to bring her deal back for
another vote but could not say when, or even if it would happen before the
existing Brexit deadline of March 29.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it is
"unacceptable and reckless" for May to bring her deal back to
parliament for a third time. “The Prime Minister has shown tonight she is in
complete denial about the scale of the crisis we are facing and unable to offer
the leadership the country needs," he said.
On Thursday, May will join EU leaders in Brussels for what
should have been the final time. They are due to tackle her extension request
before dinner on Thursday without her in the room — although it is possible she
will make a personal pitch to them explaining the request first.
The summit will kick off an intense few days of Brexit
drama. On Monday, the prime minister will lay a motion setting out the next
steps the government intends to take. MPs will be able to attach amendments to
the motion with alternative plans, which while not binding, will politically
tie the government’s hands. If supported by a majority, these could wrest
control of the Brexit process from May's government.
Over the following days before March 29, the government will
then look to bring back a third meaningful vote on the withdrawal deal; set out
new proposals to win over Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party; and,
possibly, carry out votes in both houses of parliament to formally change “exit
day.” The final legal move is necessary if a delay is agreed with the EU
because the March 29 date is enshrined in U.K. law.
Should parliament reject May’s deal for a third time, it is
likely May will be forced to apply for a lengthy extension to Article 50, which
may require a last-minute emergency EU summit toward the end of the week.
It is, however, far from certain whether the PM will apply
for a longer extension — given her attack on any such delay Wednesday — or
whether the EU would agree to it.
On Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian
said his country is ready for no deal if MPs reject the Brexit deal a third
time.
Speaking in the French parliament, he said: “We will of
course be open to a technical extension of a few weeks so that the British
institutions can finalize the ratification of the text,” Le Drian said. “On the
other hand, in the absence of a vote approving the Withdrawal Agreement, the
central scenario is an exit without agreement. We are ready to do so,” he
added.
France and other EU countries will demand a series of
guarantees should the U.K. request a long extension, according to one diplomat
speaking on condition of anonymity. First, that the U.K. will participate in
the European election in May. Second, that the Withdrawal Agreement will not be
opened again. And third, that there is a "game-changer" — either a
general election, a referendum or a cross-party agreement for a softer Brexit.
In London, Brexiteer MPs show no sign of backing down. A
senior parliamentarian said the day’s events make it “more likely than ever
we’re heading for no deal.”
The MP, a former Cabinet minister, said they were not aware
that any progress has been made in government efforts to persuade the
Democratic Unionist Party to back the deal, and that among Conservative
Brexiteers there has been “no great change of opinion.”
“If anything some are even hardening their position,” the MP
said, noting that nothing has substantially changed about the deal — or the
Northern Ireland backstop — since it was rejected by 149 votes last week.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, emotions ran high as the
gravity of the day’s events began to sink in. MPs still have an opportunity to
shape events — via the amendable motion on Monday — but their window of
opportunity is extremely slim. Perhaps impossibly so.
Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, said the country is
at “the 11th hour and 59th minute.”
“The government’s credibility is running out. Trust in it is
running out and unless [the prime minister] by some great exertion of will …
stands up and starts doing something different, we are going to spiral down
into oblivion,” he said.
"And the worst part of it all is that we will deserve
it."
This article is part of POLITICO’s premium Brexit service
for professionals: Brexit Pro. To test our our expert policy coverage of the
implications and next steps per industry, email pro@politico.eu for a
complimentary trial.
The Guardian view on May and Brexit: a prime minister gone
rogue
Editorial
Theresa May has put no deal firmly back on the table in
flagrant defiance of parliament and the dictates of responsible government
Wed 20 Mar 2019 18.31 GMT Last modified on Wed 20 Mar 2019
19.10 GMT
To achieve anything in EU diplomacy it helps to speak
European. That does not require a command of continental languages. What
matters, when dealing at the highest level in Brussels, is an ability to
acknowledge the common political and economic interests that underpin the whole
European project.
Theresa May has no fluency in that idiom. She cannot even
fake it. Since becoming prime minister, her relations with the EU have been
marked by tin-eared diplomacy. She is bad enough at cultivating relationships
in Westminster. In Brussels she has none.
The letter she sent on Wednesday requesting an article 50
extension is a case in point. Mrs May asked for the wrong thing the wrong way.
There is one reason to seek an extension, and two forms it might take. The
reason is to avoid crashing out of the EU with no deal. The available forms are
short and long. The short route, adding a month or two, provides for a
technical interlude to complete legislation once a deal has been approved by
parliament. That is what Mrs May requested, although the deal has not been
ratified. The longer variant, continuing the UK’s EU membership beyond the
summer, is required if there is no deal and the whole process needs rebooting. That
is what Mrs May should have requested. In fearful deference to hardliners in
her party, she did not.
Mrs May has asked the European council to extend the Brexit
deadline to 30 June, by which point she hopes that parliament will have stopped
obstructing her deal. Donald Tusk, the council president, responded swiftly,
confirming that a short extension was on offer, but only if Commons
ratification comes first – next week. This ultimatum expresses personal
frustration with Mrs May in European capitals. EU leaders can follow UK news.
They can see that the prime minister has no control over her party. They know
that concessions are wasted on her because she feeds them to the insatiable
beast of paranoid Euroscepticism, then comes back pleading for more.
The EU made it clear that an article 50 extension should not
be used by Mrs May to keep going round in the same familiar circles. But that
is precisely what her letter promises. It requests permission to carry on
playing a game that she has lost. A reasonable expectation, given the scale of
the current crisis, was that the UK rethink its whole approach to Brexit. No
one in Brussels expects great flexibility from Mrs May but it was not beyond
imagination that she would bend to the will of parliament. Even that is beyond
this most rigid of prime ministers.
Her crass handling of the situation has revived the peril of
no deal when MPs have three times declared it unacceptable. A chaotic Brexit is
not the only alternative to the current deal, although Mrs May insists the
choice is binary in order to apply pressure on anxious MPs. Mr Tusk said that
an emergency summit could still be convened next week where action could be
taken to avert calamity. That might mean the longer article 50 extension from
which Mrs May flinches. She hinted in the Commons on Wednesday that she would
not continue as the prime minister of a country that was still in the EU after
June. She might also be forced to name a resignation date as the price for Tory
endorsement of her deal next week.
Her political capital is all spent. She has no allies at
home or abroad. Her only leverage in parliament comes from the fear that her
appalling management of the country provokes – the prospect that she is
incompetent enough to allow the worst to happen. She long ago lost sight of
diplomacy and strategy. Then she shed authority. Now she has abandoned
responsibility, completing the journey from bad prime minister to rogue prime
minister.
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