THERESA May is this week set on a Commons collision course with Tory Remainers as a leading rebel suggested they could “collapse the Government”.
The House of Lords today again debates the UK Government’s flagship EU Withdrawal Bill with the Prime Minister is preparing for its return to the Commons on Wednesday, when she will hope to win what is expected to be a knife-edge vote.
There have even been suggestions she has held private talks with Labour MPs on the subject. Her working majority is just 13.
Last week, Mrs May avoided the prospect of a humiliating parliamentary defeat after private meetings with pro-EU Conservative rebels. One, Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney General, withdrew his amendment, which called for MPs to have a vote on a Commons motion, which would “advise” Mrs May what to do in the event the final deal on offer was rejected.
But, later, the PM was accused of betrayal after it emerged she was suggesting there should be a Commons motion, put forward by the Government, that would be unamendable ie making the final offer a take-it-or-leave-it one with no room to renegotiate.
Mr Grieve, seen as the leading light among the pro-EU Tory rebels, made clear he and his colleagues were not prepared to back down on their demand for a so-called “meaningful vote” by MPs on the final deal.
Asked if voting against the Government could bring it down, he told BBC1's Sunday Politics: "We could collapse the Government. And I can assure you I wake up at 2am in a cold sweat thinking about the problems that we have put on our shoulders.
"The difficulty is that the Brexit process is inherently risky," explained the Buckinghamshire MP.
Later, he made clear his remarks about collapsing the Government referred to a future vote on rejecting a Brexit deal, not to this week's expected clash with the PM.
The former Cabinet Minister stressed how it was important for MPs to have a real say on the withdrawal agreement with Brussels.
“I can't save the Government from getting into a situation where Parliament might disagree with it.
“The alternative is that we have all got to sign-up to a slavery clause now saying whatever the Government does, when it comes to January, however potentially catastrophic it might be for my constituents, and my country, I'm signing in blood now that I will follow over the edge of the cliff.
“And that...I am not prepared to do," declared Mr Grieve.
Mrs May responded to claims by her pro-EU colleagues that she had gone back on her word and watered down a compromise amendment by insisting she was a woman of her word and had listened carefully to rebels' concerns and acted on them.
"I did indeed meet a group of my fellow MPs. I listened to their concerns and I undertook to consider their concerns. And the next day I stood up in Prime Minister's Questions and said I'd put an amendment down in the House of Lords. I've done exactly that,” she told BBC 1's Andrew Marr Show.
"We recognise the concerns people have about the role of Parliament,” she insisted but then added: "Parliament cannot tie the hands of Government in negotiations."
The PM also rejected claims that Cabinet divisions were making Brexit negotiations with the EU more difficult.
When asked on the Marr Show what message she had for Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, after he was recorded expressing concern the UK could end up remaining in orbit around the EU and not fully free to make trade deals, she said: "The message is Government has agreed that we will have an independent trade policy. We will be free to negotiate those trade deals around the rest of the world."
The PM revealed that in the week beginning July 9 the Government would publish a White Paper, setting out its strategy on Brexit in the fullest detail yet.
She was also adamant that she could not agree to any EU move that would create a trade border between Britain and Northern Ireland as it would undermine the Union of the United Kingdom.
"That's not right. That's not acceptable," she added.
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