Tory rebels send stark warning to Boris Johnson over no-deal
Brexit
Emphatic majority in vote aiming to prevent suspension of
parliament in October
Peter Walker, Jessica Elgot and Larry Elliott
Thu 18 Jul 2019 20.06 BST Last modified on Thu 18 Jul 2019
21.12 BST
MPs have given Boris Johnson a brutal preview of the scale
of the challenge facing his premiership, as Conservative rebels voted to block
any attempt to suspend parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit.
The new measure was passed by a hefty 41-vote majority,
after a day of drama in Westminster which saw the resignation of one minister
and abstentions from four rebellious cabinet ministers, who will soon be on the
backbenches, as well as half a dozen others.
Among ministers who defied the whip and did not vote on the
complex backbench amendment were the chancellor, Philip Hammond; the justice
secretary, David Gauke; the business secretary, Greg Clark; and Rory Stewart,
the international development secretary.
Hammond, who will end three years as chancellor next week,
warned the next prime minister that he would be at the forefront of
Conservative MPs opposing a no-deal Brexit.
“If they are
genuinely seeking a deal, then they have my full support. If not, I’ll fight no
deal every inch of the way,” Hammond said.
The chancellor thinks that despite change at No 10,
opposition in parliament means there is no more chance of a no-deal Brexit than
there was before Theresa May announced she was stepping down.
Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary and Johnson’s rival for
the Tory leadership, was also absent from the voting lists, and later admitted
that he did so by accident after wrongly thinking he had been excused.
Margot James, the digital industries minister, quit her job
to vote in favour of the amendment from Hilary Benn and Alistair Burt attached
to a bill about Northern Irish affairs, but there was no action taken against
Hammond and the other frontbench abstainers.
May’s spokesman said she was “obviously disappointed” at the
abstentions, but that it was now up to Johnson or Hunt to decide what to do
with rebellious ministers once one of them becomes leader.
“No doubt her successor will take this into account when
forming their government,” a Downing Street spokesman said, in a coded warning
both to ministers about their futures, and to Johnson about the state of the
rebellious parliament he is set to inherit.
Should Johnson win the Tory leadership contest and become
prime minister, ministers are likely to pre-emptively walk out, forming an
instant and influential Conservative bloc opposing no-deal Brexit – one towards
which other Tories, perhaps even May, might gravitate.
Among the 17 Conservatives who backed the amendment on
Thursday was Tory veteran Keith Simpson, who said it was the first time he had
defied party whips during 22 years in parliament.
“This is a huge national issue,” he said. “I said months ago
to my local paper and my association that I was totally against no-deal. So
this is the first time I have rebelled but you can get a taste for it.”
The success of the amendment by 315 votes to 274 also
presents any Johnson government with a very practical obstacle, as well as
serving as an example of the ingenuity of backbench rebels in thwarting his
Brexit plans.
While Johnson has said he is not overly keen on the idea of
proroguing, or suspending parliament to prevent MPs blocking an overt no-deal
policy, he has pointedly refused to rule this out.
The amendment now makes this markedly more difficult, building
on a series of amendments in the Commons and Lords to dictate that ministers
must report regularly to the Commons up to and beyond the Brexit deadline.
The host bill is a largely technical measure connected to
elections and budgets for the long-suspended Northern Ireland government, and
an initial attempt by Conservative remainer Dominic Grieve to attach an
explicitly prorogation-blocking amendment was quashed by the Speaker, John
Bercow.
Bercow did, however, allow another Grieve-tabled amendment,
requiring a minister to report to the Commons every two weeks until December on
the progress of talks on restoring the Northern Ireland assembly, which was
passed last week by a single vote.
This was beefed-up by further amendments in the House of
Lords. On Wednesday, peers added the condition that the fortnightly reports
must be debated in the Commons. When the Lords amendments returned to the
Commons, Bercow accepted the Benn-Burt amendment which then made explicit the
requirement for the chamber to sit if it had been prorogued.
While the combined amendment does make prorogation
difficult, a no-deal departure is still the default option on the Brexit
deadline of 31 October unless Johnson or Hunt are able to swiftly conclude a
new departure deal, something the EU has dismissed as extremely unlikely.
The vote came on the day the government’s independent
forecasting body predicted a no-deal Brexit would plunge Britain into a
recession that would shrink the economy by 2%, push unemployment above 5% and
send house prices tumbling by around 10%.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said the result would
be a year-long downturn that would increase borrowing by £30bn a year,
prompting a fresh warning from Hammond to MPs backing no-deal Brexit.
After her resignation, James said the majority for the
amendment had been emphatic because of the concerns of so many ministers and
ex-ministers who rebelled or abstained. She hinted more resignations could
follow if Johnson was confirmed as leader next Tuesday.
“I think we have to wait and see what happens next. Jeremy
Hunt would behave in an appropriate way, he does not believe in proroguing
parliament, which is just too extreme, so I don’t expect people to resign until
they know for sure what the outcome is next week,” she said.
“It is difficult for anyone to resign, yes, and very
difficult for me. I love my job and I felt I still had lot more to do. Unless
you are completely sure, it is very hard. And I’ve been through the lobby to
support the prime minister’s deal three times.
“My constituents voted emphatically to leave and I will
honour that. But when it comes to protecting the right of parliament, that is
really important.”
The Eurosceptic Johnson-backer, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said
colleagues rebelling were risking an election and a Labour victory.
“I can’t understand why my colleagues are voting with Jeremy
Corbyn on this. Do they want a hard-left government to take control of their
country?” she said. “Their disruptive amendments are cynical and corrosive but
they don’t change the underlying legal realities one jot: we are leaving on 31
October with or without a deal.”
No 10 has said it opposed the amendments being tacked on to
the Northern Ireland bill because they were an inappropriate use of a technical
measure.
May’s spokesman said: “In the light of the ongoing talks to
restore the executive, our view is that forcing a report and debate every two
weeks on the progress of those talks risks being counter-productive to this
overarching aim.”
The Commons process also saw MPs vote overwhelmingly to
agree to a series of non-Brexit related Lords amendments to the bill, including
one setting out a clear timetable for the extension of abortion rights and
equal marriage to Northern Ireland, agreed in principle by MPs in landmark
votes last week.
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