Brexit
Furious Tory MPs tell May: we’ll block snap Brexit election
Cabinet ministers join warning on poll as Amber Rudd leads
bid to halt shift to the right
Michael Savage and Toby Helm
Sat 30 Mar 2019 20.59 GMT Last modified on Sat 30 Mar 2019
23.25 GMT
Conservative MPs from across the party are threatening to
vote down any attempt by Theresa May to lead them into a snap election, warning
it would split the Tories and exacerbate the Brexit crisis.
In a sign of the collapse in authority suffered by the prime
minister, cabinet ministers are among those warning that there will be a
serious campaign by Conservative MPs to vote against an election headed by May,
a move she hinted at last week to break the Brexit deadlock.
The threat of an election immediately angered both
pro-Brexit and pro-Remain MPs. May would need a two-thirds majority in the
Commons to secure one, meaning a serious rebellion by Tories could block it.
May would then be forced to secure an election by backing a no-confidence vote
in her own government, which only requires a simple majority of MPs.
Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan said: “If we have a
general election before Brexit is resolved, it will only make things worse.”
Antoinette Sandbach, a Tory MP who backs another referendum
being held on any deal agreed by parliament, said she would vote against
calling an election. “The answer is not a general election, and I would vote
against that. We need to find a way forward in parliament and then put that to
the people in a confirmatory referendum.”
Mark Francois, a member of the European Research Group of
pro-Brexit MPs, said there was “not a chance” that Conservative MPs would back
an election under May. “‘Of course they wouldn’t – not after last time. And
remember, she needs a super majority to do it.”
With contenders for the Tory leadership already plotting
their route to replace May ahead of another perilous week for her premiership,
it emerged that:
• Pro-Brexit ministers are threatening to resign should May
agree to adopt a permanent customs union with the EU this week.
• A new group of moderate Conservatives, led by Amber Rudd,
has been organising in an attempt to stop the party moving further to the right
under a new leader.
• Several more Tories are poised to support the idea of a
referendum on any deal eventually passed by parliament.
Another highly unpredictable week could see parliament force
May to adopt a soft Brexit, and another attempt to pass her deal. More than 100
Tory MPs have also signed a letter calling on May to rule out a long extension
to Britain’s EU membership, even if that means backing a no-deal Brexit.
Meanwhile, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, said his
party should “embrace” the European elections on 23 May in the event of a
Brexit extension, as he re-emphasised Labour’s commitment to a referendum to
confirm any deal agreed by parliament.
“We now have until April 12th to either agree a new path to
a viable Brexit deal, with an extension to article 50 that means taking part in
European elections, or crash out with no deal,” he writes on theguardian.com.
“I think Labour should embrace European elections just as we should welcome a
general election that might get rid of this broken government. If we go into
either contest with a positive policy on Brexit and say any final deal must be
put back to the people, I am confident Labour can win.”
He added: “We already have a fund raised by local parties to
pay for the campaign and I’ve asked our NEC [National Executive Committee] to
develop a plan to get grassroots members involved in selecting candidates.”
Senior government ministers are now openly contemplating a
long delay or no Brexit to avoid crashing out. Caroline Nokes, the immigration
minister, wrote to a constituent that May’s deal “is dead”. She added: “There
are some stark choices. For me it has to be in the direction of a long
extension to article 50 and/or no Brexit rather than crashing out.”
Some cabinet ministers now want to vote for a softer Brexit
in a new round of indicative votes on Brexit options on Monday. May is set to
talk to her cabinet on a conference call on Sunday. When the process took place
last week, the cabinet was forced to abstain.
Handing the cabinet the right to vote could be enough to
secure a majority for a permanent customs union with the EU – a plan that would
stop Britain signing its own trade agreements but would deal with many of the
border issues.
May appeared to suggest to MPs on Friday that she could call
an election if her Brexit deal was not passed, saying parliament was “reaching
the limits of this process”. However, several influential Tory figures and
ministers said there was a high risk Conservative MPs would vote against an
election with May at the helm.
One cabinet minister said they believed many Tories would
vote down an election, adding that other parties such as the newly-formed
Change UK group would also oppose it.
Nigel Evans, executive secretary of the 1922 Committee of
Tory backbenchers, said an election was a terrible idea that the cabinet would
block. “I don’t believe the cabinet would allow her to do it,” he said.
“Theresa May cannot call an election, she cannot be the leader who would lead
us into it. The party would not tolerate it.”
Former Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt, who resigned
last week after voting in favour of MPs taking control of the Brexit process
also made clear he was strongly opposed to the idea of an early election: “I
would be profoundly disturbed by a general election in the current
circumstances of the country.”
Another minister said it would “merely add more chaos to the
chaos”. One influential Tory said: “How many Tory MPs would actually want May
to fight another election? Twenty? Half the cabinet would be against the idea.
A huge number would vote against.”
However, other Tories predicted that while feelings were
running high, May would be able to secure enough support for an election if she
decided to call one. “It is not a great look for an MP to avoid their
electorate,” said one former cabinet minister. Another MP against an election
said: “We would be honour-bound to vote for it.”
An Opinium poll for the Observer reveals that May’s lead
over Jeremy Corbyn on who would be the best prime minister has halved since
last month, dropping from 15 points to 7 points. When Tory leadership hopefuls
were pitted against Corbyn, Boris Johnson was the only one who had a lead over
the Labour leader. A quarter of voters (25%) thought Johnson would be the best
prime minister, compared with 24% for Corbyn
PM may have to accept soft Brexit if parliament backs it,
says minister
David Gauke says May would have to ‘look closely’ at customs
union if Commons voted for it
Rajeev Syal
Sun 31 Mar 2019 11.31 BST
Theresa May’s grip on power looks increasingly fragile, with
cabinet ministers openly preparing for a leadership challenge
Theresa May will have to consider the possibility of
accepting a softer Brexit if the measure is supported by parliament this week,
the justice secretary, David Gauke, has said.
With 10 days before the UK is due to leave the EU, and
parliament plunged into a political stalemate, Gauke, a soft-Brexit supporter,
said the prime minister would have to “look very closely” if MPs back a customs
union in a fresh round of indicative votes that begin on Monday.
“I think she would need to look very closely at that,” he
told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.
“If parliament is voting overwhelmingly against leaving the
European Union without a deal but is voting in favour of a softer Brexit, then
I don’t think it’s sustainable to ignore parliament’s position and therefore
leave without a deal.”
May’s grip on power looks increasingly fragile, with cabinet
ministers openly preparing for a leadership challenge after she steps down.
She hopes to bring back her Brexit deal to parliament again
this week after it was rejected for a third time by MPs – and appears poised to
trigger a general election if parliament fails to agree a way forward that she
would then lead.
Gauke said he could not remain a member of the government if
it tried to leave with no deal, but said May had made clear that was something
she would not do.
“My position is that it is not the responsible thing for a
government to do, to leave without a deal in these circumstances, so obviously
I wouldn’t be able to remain a member of the government that pursued that as a
policy. That is a point I have made on a number of occasions,” he said.
“The prime minister has been very clear that when parliament
is making it clear what it wants to do, she is not going to go down that
route.”
Senior Tories have warned that May should not be allowed to
lead the party into a snap election. But James Cleverly, the deputy chair of
the Conservative party, told Sophy Ridge on Sky News that May could well do so.
Asked if May could lead the party into a snap election, he
said: “That is an inevitable possibility.”
He insisted the party was not specifically preparing for a
snap general election to resolve the Brexit deadlock, but acknowledged that
“sensible and pragmatic” contingency planning was taking place.
“I don’t think an election would solve anything. Time is of
the essence, we have got Brexit to deliver. We don’t want to add any more
unnecessary delay,” he said.
Alistair Burt, the veteran foreign office minister who
resigned last week over Brexit, warned that the UK’s democracy itself was in
danger of collapse.
“We are in peril … we have seen in other countries that if
people become so polarised that they don’t listen to the other side that they
resort to other methods,” he said.
More than 100 Tory MPs have also signed a letter calling on
May to rule out a long extension to Britain’s EU membership, even if that means
backing a no-deal Brexit.
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