Theresa May is on a collision course with Britain’s parliament after the prime minister refused to compromise to secure a Brexit deal on the eve of a deadline set by MPs for information about next steps.
A week after suffering the worst parliamentary defeat by a British government in modern history, Mrs May will not lay out a substantive “plan B” for leaving the EU, despite parliament’s demands that she stop running down the clock.
Instead, she will tell MPs on Monday that she is still working to ease Eurosceptics’ concerns about the Irish border.
She is expected to meet MPs, business leaders and trade unions this week, but has so far refused to rule out a no-deal Brexit or to keep Britain in an EU customs union, key compromises that could have won her the support of Labour MPs.
Her rigid approach is likely to embolden MPs who want to take control of the process by amending parliamentary procedure. “It’s Groundhog Day,” said Stephen Doughty, a Labour MP who backs a second Brexit referendum.
Two attempts to break the Brexit deadlock failed to gather support over the weekend.
Liam Fox, the trade secretary, suggested that an “agreement with Ireland” could replace the so-called backstop, the contentious insurance policy to avoid Irish border checks, which Eurosceptics fear will trap the UK in a customs union with the EU.
But the Irish government dismissed the idea, saying “Ireland negotiates as part of the group of 27 European nations.” EU officials said that a bilateral Ireland-UK treaty could not cover crucial governance issues for the bloc’s external border or address areas of exclusive EU competence.
Mrs May told cabinet ministers on a conference call on Sunday that she planned to do something about the backstop but did not specify what.
Meanwhile, a separate proposal discussed in Conservative circles, for Mrs May to offer to step down after Brexit — in return for Eurosceptics supporting her withdrawal deal with the EU — failed to excite Tory MPs. One said it would not compensate for the flaws in her deal, another that it would not win over a “game-changing” number of rebels.
Mrs May’s Brexit deal was defeated by a margin of 230 in the House of Commons on Tuesday, meaning that she must win over more than 100 MPs to pass it.
By focusing on the backstop, she is again wooing Conservative and Democratic Unionist Eurosceptics, rather than moderate Labour MPs.
In response, Lucy Powell, a Labour MP who backs single market membership, said that Mrs May had “made many strategic errors over last couple of years, but doubling down on plan A to get Brexit over the line will end up being the worst”.
Over the weekend, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a key Tory Eurosceptic, raised the prospect of backing Mrs May’s deal, saying it “would be better than not leaving at all”.
With just 68 days before Brexit is scheduled to take place on March 29, the UK government also has the challenge of passing major pieces of legislation, moving ahead with hundreds of ministerial orders, and agreeing to roll over dozens of trade deals in case of a no-deal Brexit. Keir Starmer, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said it was “inevitable” that the exit date would need to be pushed back.
On Monday MPs from across the House of Commons will back moves to force the government’s hand, in what could be one of the most significant constitutional moments in recent British history. No vote is expected until January 29.
One move, led by former Conservative minister Nick Boles, would seek to block a no-deal Brexit— by giving backbench MPs greater power to put forward primary legislation. Another, by former Conservative attorney-general Dominic Grieve, would allow opposition parties to determine what is debated by MPs, a power that has to date been largely reserved to the government.
Independent MP Frank Field has put forward an amendment to allow MPs to show their support for one of seven different options. These include: changes to the Irish backstop, the insurance policy designed to avoid a hard Irish border; no deal Brexit; an extension of the two year-long Article 50 divorce process from the EU; a Canada-style free trade agreement; Norwegian-style membership of the single market; a second referendum; and membership of a customs union. It is unlikely that any of those options enjoys majority support among MPs.
Mr Field, who voted for Brexit, said, “Reaching out to 650 MPs is quite arduous and a very lengthy process [for the prime minister]. Why not let us reach out to her?” But trade secretary Mr Fox told the BBC that he was opposed to so-called indicative votes.
Yvette Cooper, Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, said parliament would flex its muscles to make sure Britain did not leave the EU without a deal.
Ms Cooper said Mrs May should rule out a no deal exit “in the national interest”, but said the prime minister privately hoped that parliament would prevent such a damaging outcome arising.
She is backing a cross-party move that would allow MPs to put forward their own bill, empowering the House of Commons to instruct the government to prevent a no deal exit if no agreement had been approved by MPs by the end of February.
“We are in this situation because the prime minister and the government has not worked with parliament,” Ms Cooper told the BBC’s Today programme.
