THERESA May has signalled that the Brexit crisis will not be resolved this side of Christmas as she played down the prospects of any “immediate breakthrough” on the backstop impasse.
In the Commons, the UK Government did not reinstate the meaningful vote for next week’s business ahead of the festive recess, meaning it looks set to take place in early to mid January.
And any hope the Prime Minister might have had, that winning the confidence vote in her leadership would have quietened her critics within the Tory, was quickly dispelled when Brexiteers, including Dominic Raab, the former Brexit minister, called for her to be replaced.
Her 200-117 victory in Wednesday night’s confidence vote indicated the enfeebled Conservative leader had lost the confidence of a third of her MPs and more than half of her backbenchers.
Crucially, the size of the rebellion makes getting the Brexit deal through the Commons an even unlikelier prospect as the opposing numbers to it are as high as 439 while her supporters in the Tory Party number just 200.
Arriving in Brussels for more crisis talks and bilaterals with fellow EU leaders, Mrs May also confirmed that she would not be leading the Conservative Party into the 2022 General Election.
She said: “In my heart I would love to be able to lead the Conservative Party into the next General Election but it is right that the party feels it would prefer to go into that election with a new leader.
“People try to talk about dates; what I’m clear about is the next General Election is in 2022 and it’s right another party leader takes us into that general election and my focus now is on ensuring that I can get those assurances that we need to get this deal over the line."
Asked for a response to opposition claims that she was now a “lame duck prime minister,” No 10 simply referred journalists to the PM’s Downing St remarks on Wednesday night following the vote of Tory MPs.
The next parliamentary flashpoint will come on Monday when Mrs May will make her regular post-European Council summit statement in the Commons.
There is a building expectation that it will be after this that Labour - supported by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and the Green Party - will call a confidence vote in the Conservative Government.
Much will rest on the outcome with particular focus on what Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists will do.
Victory for the Government would help bolster its, and possibly, the PM’s position; it would also create a dilemma for Jeremy Corbyn on whether or not he would support the clamour for a People’s Vote. Defeat for the Government would almost certainly spark a general election in early 2019.
In Brussels, Mrs May told reporters: "I recognise the strength of concern in the House of Commons and that's what I will be pushing to colleagues today.
"I don't expect an immediate breakthrough but what I do hope is that we can start work as quickly as possible on the assurances that are necessary."
In the Belgian capital, the PM met Irish premier Leo Varadkar and was also due to speak with Donald Tusk, the European Council President, and Xavier Bettel, the Luxembourg premier. It is also understood she might have a one-on-one meeting with Emmanuel Macron, the French President.
Mr Varadkar has made clear the Withdrawal Agreement "cannot be reopened or contradicted" but Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, has spoken of “clarifications”. Yet it seems unlikely that a mere warmly-worded clarification can remove the legally-binding backstop proposal, which means that the UK cannot extract itself unilaterally from it but can only do so with the say-so of the EU27.
Arriving for the Brussels summit, Juha Sipila, the Finnish PM, said that delivering "legally-binding" assurances on the backstop would be "a little bit difficult" but added: “We all want to help."
Germany’s Angela Merkel said there would be discussions about giving “additional assurances” to the UK but stressed: "I do not see that this Withdrawal Agreement can be changed."
Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian Chancellor, referred to a “little better explanation” of the provisions of the deal might be given, adding: "Hopefully, that will allow Theresa May to bring a vote in January and obtain a majority."
At Westminster, Stephen Barclay, the Brexit Secretary, sought to draw a line under the confidence vote, saying: "The vote gives us a chance to stop focusing on the issue of the leadership and really now to heal the party and come back together in the national interest.
"We have now got the opportunity to focus on the deal, to listen to the concerns colleagues have expressed in terms of the backstop, to get the political and legal assurances that colleagues are looking for.”
However, the critical Conservatives voices against Mrs May refused to stay silent in light of her confidence vote victory.
Dominic Raab, the former Brexit Secretary, revealed he had voted against the PM and insisted, despite the vote, she needed to be replaced, noting how it was “very difficult to see how this Prime Minister can lead us forward”.
The Brexiteer, tipped as a potential contender to replace Mrs May, told the BBC: “We will have to back her as best we can. But the problem is that both in relation to Brexit and the wider sustainability of the Government, the given likelihood of any changes to the deal, given the likely scale of opposition, it looks very difficult to see how this Prime Minister can lead us forward.”
He later told Sky News: “My biggest fear now is that if she continues in place, we have a greater risk of a Jeremy Corbyn government”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the anti-EU European Research Group[ERG], claimed it was "not impossible" that, on reflection, Mrs May would decide to stand aside.
"You may remember that Margaret Thatcher... said: 'We fight on, we fight to win.' Nobody was tougher than Mrs Thatcher and the next day she resigned. So, it's not impossible.
“Theresa May should consider what she said last night. I agree with her that we do want somebody who can unite the country and the Conservative Party and she has to ask herself is she realistically that person?"
Fellow Leaver Richard Drax said the party needed a Brexiteer as leader, telling ITV1's Good Morning Britain: "I would suggest, were the Prime Minister thinking carefully this morning, she would offer her resignation and allow someone who can deliver this to take over."
But Conservative Remainer Sarah Wollaston, argued that replacing Mrs May with one of the Brexiteers’ favourites would not enable the ERG to get their version of Brexit through the Commons.
"A new leader won't change the maths of this place, that's the point here," she said.
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