May faces calls to ‘play hardball’ with the EU by demanding Irish backstop get-out clause as she gathers Cabinet with just a WEEK to go before Commons showdown
- Theresa May is scrambling to rescue her Brexit deal amid opposition from MPs
- EU is expected to give ‘assurances’ on Irish border backstop before crunch vote
- Ministers said to be urging PM to give Parliament final say on entering backstop
The PM is still scrambling to win over mutinous MPs as she stares down the barrel of a disastrous defeat in the vote, due to happen next Tuesday
Theresa May is facing calls to ‘play hardball’ with the EU today as she gathers Cabinet with just a week to go before a titanic Commons clash on her Brexit deal.
The PM is still scrambling to win over mutinous MPs as she stares down the barrel of a disastrous defeat in the vote, due to happen next Tuesday.
Irish PM Leo Varadkar has signalled that the EU will give ‘assurances’ that the UK will not be ‘trapped’ in the controversial backstop arrangements designed to avoid a hard border.
But ministers are said to be urging Mrs May to give Parliament the final say on whether the backstop takes effect, as well as the right to exit the Treaty after 12 months if Brussels is not behaving fairly.
A Cabinet source told The Times the government should present the EU with those conditions on a take-it-or-leave-it basis – with no deal the alternative.
However, there are currently few signs that Brussels would agree to those terms.
Sources have suggested they are instead proposing an ‘exchange of letters’ with Mrs May, setting out the bloc’s intention to conclude a trade deal by 2021.
That timetable would mean the backstop need never come into effect, but experts have voiced scepticism about whether it is possible.
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With the prospect of Mrs May’s plan passing the Commons looking vanishingly small, opponents are pushing their own visions of how to proceed.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory former education secretary Nicky Morgan have tabled an amendment to the Finance Bill today designed to make it harder for the government to push ahead with no deal.
The change would effectively limit the Treasury’s tax-raising powers, making it more difficult to respond to the disruption from crashing out.
As the PM wooed Tory MPs in Downing Street last night, business minister Richard Harrington made clear he will resign if the government backs no-deal after Mrs May’s plan is defeated.
Several Cabinet members, including Justice Secretary David Gauke, have also signalled they would quit – while some Conservatives have insisted they would vote no-confidence in the government to avoid a chaotic departure.
Boris Johnson (left) was at a reception in Downing Street where Theresa May tried to win MPs over to her Brexit deal. Leo Varadkar (right) has said the EU can give assurances over the Irish border backstop
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt was also at the reception in Downing Street last night
In evidence of the growing uncertainty, UK officials are ‘putting out feelers’ on extending Article 50, according to the Telegraph.
Culture minister Margot James yesterday broke ranks to suggest Brexit might have to be delayed if Mrs May’s deal is voted down.
But Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay this morning insisted the policy was still to leave the bloc at the end of March.
Downing Street has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a delay in the departure date, with Mrs May’s official spokesman saying: ‘The Prime Minister has been very clear on a number of occasions that extending Article 50 is not something we are intending to do.’
Mrs May last night began a seven-day charm offensive by inviting all Tory MPs and their partners to drinks in No 10.
Those attending included vocal critics such as Boris Johnson.
But hardline Eurosceptic MPs warned they would not vote for the deal even if Mrs May achieved a breakthrough on the Irish backstop.
Sir Bill Cash, chairman of the Commons European scrutiny committee, said the backstop was ‘not the whole story by any means’.
He added: ‘Reassurances are going to get nowhere and they are certainly not going to convince anybody who’s thinking hard about this when it comes to the vote next week.’
Fellow Eurosceptic Sir John Redwood said opposition to Mrs May’s deal ‘goes way beyond the unacceptable Irish backstop and includes paying huge sums of money with nothing nailed down over the future partnership’.
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