A trio of pro-EU Cabinet ministers have issued a blunt warning to Tory Brexiteers that Parliament will prevent them forcing a “disastrous” no-deal break with the EU.
Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke said the Brexiteers in the European Research Group (ERG) will only have themselves to blame if Britain’s departure from the EU is delayed.
Their comments are likely to be seen as a thinly veiled warning they could defy the Prime Minister Theresa May to back moves by MPs to prevent a no-deal Brexit in next week’s crunch Commons vote.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly insisted Britain will leave on March 29 as planned.
But writing in the Daily Mail, the Work and Pensions Secretary, the Business Secretary and the Justice Secretary said it was clear that a majority of MPs would support an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process rather than see a no-deal break.
They said leaving without an agreement in place with Brussels would weaken national security, “severely” damage the economy, and risk the break-up of the United Kingdom.
“If there is no breakthrough in the coming week, the balance of opinion in Parliament is clear – that it would be better to seek to extend Article 50 and delay our date of departure rather than crash out of the European Union on March 29,” they said.
“It is time that many of our Conservative party colleagues in the ERG recognise that Parliament will stop a disastrous no-deal Brexit on March 29.
“If that happens, they will have no-one to blame but themselves for delaying Brexit.”
Moderate Conservative MPs have already written to Chief Whip Julian Smith to warn they are ready to vote for a delay to the UK’s March 29 exit if the “intransigence” of hard-line Brexiteers means Mrs May’s deal is again rejected by the House.
On Wednesday, the Commons is expected to consider an amendment tabled by Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative former minister Sir Oliver Letwin enabling the House to extend the Article 50 withdrawal process if there is no deal by mid March.
A similar amendment was defeated by MPs last month, but there is speculation that enough Tory rebels, alarmed that there is still no deal in place, could be prepared to back it this time round for it to pass.
Talks with Brussels are due to resume next week as ministers continue to seek legally binding changes to the Northern Ireland backstop, that will enable her finally to get the Withdrawal Agreement through the Commons.
MPs in the ERG have warned they will again vote against the deal if they are not satisfied with the changes.
Downing Street has said if there is no deal by Tuesday, the Prime Minister will at that point make another statement to the House and table an amendable motion to be debated and voted on the following day.
Before that Mrs May will attend the two-day EU-League of Arab States summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh starting on Sunday.
She is expected to take the opportunity to hold one-to-one meetings in the margins of the main conference with key EU figures including European Council president Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Irish premier Leo Varadkar.
No 10 has played down the prospect of a breakthrough, and there is speculation that Mrs May will say she intends to come back to the House again in two weeks time when she addresses MPs on Tuesday.
However it is unclear whether that will be enough to stave off a revolt by MPs alarmed at the prospect of no-deal – including potential ministerial resignations.
The latest development came at the end of an extraordinary week which saw eight Labour MPs and three Tories quit their parties to form a new Independent Group in the Commons supporting a second referendum.
One of the ex-Conservative MPs, Heidi Allen, told the Independent news website that they had agreed they would not do anything which might “facilitate” a general election.
Asked what they would do in the instance of a no-confidence vote in the Government brought by the opposition, she said: “This is all such a jigsaw, it is very hard to game plan.
“But what we have definitely agreed is that anything that would facilitate a general election we wouldn’t support.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here