MAY HITS BACK
THERESA May has vowed to push ahead with her crunch vote on Brexit next week - even as minister begged her to scrap it.
The Prime Minister defied her critics this morning to insist she has no plans to put off the crucial Commons showdown.
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She told the BBC today: "We’re in the middle of 5 days of debate which will lead to a vote on this issue... they are voting on the deal."
And she refused several times to be drawn on whether she could cancel it altogether.
At least three Cabinet ministers are believed to be trying to persuade the PM to put the December 11 vote off. And Labour plans to issue a vote of no confidence if May loses.
According to the Daily Mail, one said: "We need to be creative and we need to get the DUP back on board. It can be done, but it can't be done before next Tuesday."
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Another said: "Marching people into the valley of death next Tuesday is a mistake."
With the clock ticking, and unrest across Parliament, some senior Tories have suggested she delay the vote.
According to the Telegraph, EU leaders would offer her a chance to extend the Article 50 deadline if she is voted down in the Commons next Tuesday.
It could give Britain more time to negotiate a deal before the March 29 axe falls.
But Downing Street has always ruled out a date change.
Senior Tories on both sides of the Brexit divide predicted Britain's EU departure date of March 29 will now be delayed as ministers will be forced to put together a new softer option to please Parliament.
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Theresa May must fix hated Irish backstop, Sir Graham Brady warns
The news comes as:
- EU leaders suggested the leave date could be pushed back beyond March if she loses
- Top Tory MP Johnny Mercer became the 104th MP to trash Mrs May’s deal and say he would vote against it
- Liam Fox warned yesterday that MPs have “stolen Brexit”
- Top Tories warned the PM will be forced to resign if she loses the key vote
- No10 said again that the Brexit deal can't be tweaked ahead of next week's vote
May is trying to salvage her deal and win over Conservative dissenters by giving a MPs a vote on the Northern Irish backstop, she confirmed this morning.
The PM revealed her last-ditch plans today to try and win around Tory rebels into supporting her deal next week, as she faces almost certain defeat.
Damning legal advice yesterday revealed the backstop plan for Northern Ireland would tie us down to the EU forever - which is one of the main reasons MPs hate her deal so much.
Mrs May acknowledged today that "people have a concern of the backstop, that we could be in it definitely" but argued that the other option of staying in a transition would mean paying more money to the EU and accepting unlimited EU immigration for longer too.
She said that killing off her proposals could end up in the UK leaving the bloc with No Deal - or would risk no Brexit.
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Earlier this week there was fury as Tory rebels backed Labour in a coup to inflict a landmark defeat on the Government.
Ministers were voted to be in contempt of Parliament for the first time ever - and were forced to release a stream of legal documents which proved her deal risks splitting Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK “indefinitely”.
And a separate vote proposed by rebel Tory Dominic Grieve gave MPs the power for what happens in the event that Parliament rejects her deal next week.
But International Trade Secretary Liam Fox blasted it as a plot to “steal Brexit from the British people”.
The DUP, which props up her administration, warned they won't carry on backing the party if she ploughs on with the plans.
The Sun Says
WHY is Theresa May ploughing on with a vote she looks doomed to lose?
She cannot sell the unsellable. Better to use the time in Brussels trying to fix the toxic “Irish backstop” which scores of her MPs and the DUP won’t stomach.
Most people could live with the rest of her Brexit deal. But not a mechanism we cannot legally leave, potentially locking us forever into a customs union and dividing up the UK. Even an EU blinded by self-interest must see that.
Downing Street’s defeatism is soul destroying. Chancellor Philip Hammond, with his famous no-can-do spirit, says: “The idea there’s an option of renegotiating at the 11th hour is a delusion.”
Why? If the EU dislikes the backstop too, as the Government claims, it should be amenable to amending it.
Argue for a time limit. Deadlines focus the mind. Set a date for a trade deal to be reached and the backstop to end.
Meanwhile we can prepare our other trading options.
There IS a downside for the EU if the deal is defeated. The chaos won’t be ours alone.
And don’t think it could hardly get worse. Try to imagine Corbyn’s shambolically divided rabble taking the reins.
Piers Morgan gets in bust-up with top Brexiteer Dominic Raab on Good Morning Britain
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