• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Theresa May promises vote on final Brexit deal by March 12

Theresa May on Brexit collision course with MPs

Theresa May has promised to put her final Brexit deal to a vote in parliament by March 12, as her own ministers threatened to take control of the exit timetable.

The UK prime minister also suggested that she would not sack three Europhile cabinet ministers who intend to break government orders on Wednesday in order to try to block a no-deal Brexit.

Mrs May said: We still have it within our grasp to leave the EU with a deal on 29th March”. Mrs May is engaged in high-stakes negotiations with EU leaders, after her original Brexit deal was defeated in a so-called “meaningful vote” in the House of Commons last month by a record margin of 230 votes.

Speaking on a plane on her way to the EU-Arab League summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, she said that she would continue the “positive talks” with the EU this week and “as a result of that we won’t bring a [second] meaningful vote to parliament this week, but we will ensure that happens by March 12”.

“We still have it within our grasp to leave the EU with a deal on 29th March”, Mrs May said.

The deadline she has set for the meaningful vote is an attempt to circumvent MPs’ attempts to extend Brexit talks. A proposal by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, which parliament is due to debate on Wednesday, would give MPs the ability to seek an extension to the Article 50 exit process if no deal has been approved by parliament by March 13.

Home secretary Amber Rudd, business secretary Greg Clark and justice secretary David Gauke indicated on Friday they would back the proposal, which would contradict Mrs May’s continued insistence not to extend Article 50.

Mrs May insisted on Sunday that “collective [cabinet] responsibility has not broken down”. Questioned on whether the three Europhile ministers could remain in government, Mrs May said: “What we’ve seen around the cabinet table, in party and in the country at large is strong views on the issue of Europe. That’s not a surprise to anybody.”

Earlier on Sunday Michael Gove, the UK environment secretary, hit out at the Cooper proposal to block a no-deal Brexit, calling it a “mistake” that would not solve the impasse between London and Brussels.

He told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show that blocking a no-deal Brexit would not “advance our effective movement towards a deal”, and “might end up with a second referendum”.

Fellow cabinet ministers have called for Ms Rudd, Mr Clark and Mr Gauke to be sacked, the Sunday Times reported. In a sign of tensions within the Conservative party, Nick Boles, an MP who has led efforts to block a no-deal Brexit, labelled the anonymous ministers “pathetic invertebrates”.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Eurosceptic backbench MP, told the BBC’s Pienaar’s Politics that any minister who votes against the government would have “automatically resigned”. But Mr Gove sought to damp down tensions, saying that calls for sackings were inappropriate “macho postures”.

A previous attempt to rule out a no-deal Brexit was defeated last month in the House of Commons by a margin of 23 votes. Mr Rees-Mogg also raised procedural doubts about the revised Cooper amendment, saying it did not change the EU Withdrawal Act, which sets the date of Brexit as March 29.

Mr Gove said “progress is being made” in negotiations, and that changes to the backstop could come in the form of a time limit, a unilateral exit mechanism or an additional legal document making clear that the UK would not be kept permanently in the arrangement. The EU has ruled out a time limit or a unilateral exit mechanism.
Also on Sunday, Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, again called on his leader Jeremy Corbyn to change following the resignation of nine MPs from the party last week. Mr Watson said the voice of moderate MPs “has to be heard”, and that his preferred option was “a reshuffle” of Mr Corbyn’s ministerial team.

Asked if he would remain in the Labour party no matter what, Mr Watson said: “You’d have to drive me out.”