Brexiteers mull gamble to remove Theresa May
The prime minister met with leading Brexiteers Sunday at her
Chequers country residence.
By TOM
MCTAGUE 3/24/19, 10:58 PM
CET Updated 3/25/19, 6:35 AM CET
British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing pressure from
within the Conservative party to quit over her handling of the Brexit process |
Jack Taylor/Getty Images
LONDON — For the Brexiteers, it’s stick or twist time.
With members of parliament poised to wrest control of Brexit
from the government, senior Conservative Euroskeptics held talks with Theresa
May Sunday in a last-ditch bid to resolve the crisis without a full-blown Tory
civil war.
After EU leaders last week imposed a new, hard deadline of
April 12 — by which time the U.K. must either agree May’s deal, walk away with
no deal or ask for a long extension to Article 50 — the choice facing
Conservative Brexiteers has quickly crystalized.
They can either stick with the deal to avoid something worse
imposed by parliament or gamble everything on no deal, even if this may come
only after a long delay and a general election under a new Tory leader. The
answer to this question, which will likely be settled in the coming days, could
shape British politics for decades to come.
The only thing that appears certain, after a tsunami of
devastating headlines Sunday about Tory MPs turning against their leader, is
that the prime minister's days now look numbered.
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Stephen
Barclay | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
MPs will take their first trepidatious steps along the road
to this decision in the House of Commons Monday when they vote on a proposal to
take control of the parliamentary timetable from the government.
The move was denounced on Sunday by Brexit Secretary Stephen
Barclay on the BBC's Andrew Marr show as "constitutionally unprecedented
and a very serious risk to Brexit itself."
An amendment to a motion setting out what the government
plans to do next has been put forward by senior Tory backbencher Oliver Letwin
creating time on Wednesday for a series of “indicative votes” on alternative Brexit
plans to May’s deal.
Should the amendment pass, as expected, it will set the
clock ticking for an explosive day in parliament on Wednesday in which a
majority might, for the first time, be assembled in favor of one form of
Brexit, rather than simply against the prime minister’s.
However, these votes are not binding on the government.
Further parliamentary maneuverings will be required, should a majority agree
one course of action or another, to turn any proposal into law.
The only hope for the government is that MPs change the
equation by legally removing no deal as an option in the short term.
Barclay said the government would decide when to bring back
the prime minister’s deal for a third time after Monday’s votes — either before
or after the parliamentary fireworks on Wednesday. A crisis Cabinet meeting
will be held Monday at 10 a.m., local time, to agree the government’s strategy.
Ahead of that, on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister met
with six of her ministers plus seven backbenchers — mostly from the Brexiteer
wing of the party — at her Chequers country residence. The attendees included
former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, former Brexit Secretaries David Davis
and Dominic Raab, as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the talks were
"lengthy," and covered "a range of issues, including whether
there is sufficient support in the Commons to bring back a meaningful vote this
week.”
They will also undoubtedly have touched on Letwin's move to
hold indicative votes. The consequences of these could be seismic for Britain’s
exit from the EU.
First, should MPs seek to legally remove no deal as an
option in the short term — by finding a way to force the prime minister to
apply for a long extension to Article 50 — the conditions for May’s deal
passing become better, though few are convinced even that will be enough to get
it over the line.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has twice voted
against the prime minister’s deal, told the BBC Sunday: “I am going to keep —
and I recommend my colleagues do — keep their options open on this, because we
don’t know what’s happening this week. We have no idea what the alternatives
are and whether people vote for this or not depends hugely on whether we are
able to leave with no deal or not, or whether there is a change to this.”
However, should parliament agree to take no deal off the
table, or an alternative way forward other than the PM’s deal, it appears
impossible the Conservative government will be able to implement it, according
to Brexit Secretary Barclay.
As May faces up to another make-or-break week, the price
many Conservative MPs are now demanding for their support is that she publicly
agrees to stand down.
“The vote itself would potentially collide with fundamental
commitments the government has given in their manifesto,” Barclay told Marr.
In this scenario, Barclay said, a general election may be
necessary to break the impasse.
“Ultimately at its logical conclusion, the risk of a general
election increases because you potentially have a situation where parliament is
instructing the executive to do something that is counter to what it was
elected to do,” he said.
Barclay’s reading was quickly backed by those on the
Brexiteer wing of the Conservative Party. Backbencher Simon Clarke said this is
the “constitutionally correct position.” He added: “Better that, surely, than
our being reduced to the transmission mechanism for policies that are not our
own — and which fly in the face of the promises on which we were elected.”
The only hope for the government is that MPs change the
equation by legally removing no deal as an option in the short term.
“What would potentially be opened by the process is also
whether then parliament would go on to legislate to enforce, for example,
taking no deal [off the table],” Barclay said.
However, even this might trigger an immediate election,
Barclay said. “The only consequence of that would be European parliamentary
elections, and I think for many in the Conservative Party, but in parliament as
a whole, that would run directly counter to what people stood [on] in the [2016
general election] manifesto.”
As May faces up to another make-or-break week, the price
many Conservative MPs are now demanding for their support is that she publicly
agrees to stand down for the next round of the Brexit negotiations.
For others it has already gone too far. May needs to go
before any agreement is signed with Brussels. If parliament forces the
government to apply for a long delay to Brexit to let that happen, so be it.
This article is part of POLITICO’s premium Brexit service
for professionals: Brexit Pro. To test our our expert policy coverage of the
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Brexit. May encurralada entre o parlamento, as ruas e os
seus ministros
Niklas Hallen / AFP
JOÃO CAMPOS RODRIGUES
24/03/2019 21:42
Um milhão de pessoas marcharam por um segundo referendo e o
The Sunday Times noticia um “golpe” contra May por parte dos seus ministros.
A primeira-ministra britânica, Theresa May, não tem muito
para onde se virar. Parece improvável que consiga aprovar o seu acordo no
Parlamento britânico, após duas derrotas sucessivas e sem conseguir novas
concessões por parte da União Europeia. Nas ruas, este sábado, viu-se perante
cerca de um milhão de pessoas exigindo um novo referendo ao Brexit, e já há
planos de um “golpe” por parte dos seus próprios ministros, segundo avançou
este domingo o The Sunday Times.
O jornal britânico garante ter contactado 11 ministros do
governo conservador de May, que preferiram manter-se anónimos e concordaram que
a primeira--ministra deveria demitir-se, com alguns a qualificarem-na de
“tóxica” e “errática”.
Já se fala em possíveis sucessores da chefe de governo, em
particular David Lidington, o braço-direito de May. O antigo ministro para a
Europa de David Cameron posiciona-se como um moderado dentro do seu partido e
votou contra o Brexit, o que o torna impopular junto dos conservadores
eurocéticos, que tiveram um papel fundamental nas derrotas parlamentares da
primeira-ministra.
São também vistos como possíveis candidatos o ministro dos
Negócios Estrangeiros, Jeremy Hunt, e o ministro do Ambiente, Michael Gove, que
fez campanha pela saída da União Europeia e, como tal, é considerado uma
escolha de consenso entre os conservadores.
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