THERESA May’s third attempt to get her Brexit deal through Parliament could happen just 24 hours before Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, UK Government sources have suggested.
A Commons vote on Thursday March 28 would mean MPs would be pushed to the very edge of the political brink, faced with accepting the Prime Minister’s deal or seeing Britain crash out at 11pm the following day.
While Mrs May might already have been granted an extension beyond March 29 by the EU27, it is possible if she lost the key vote, there would be a concerted Conservative move to force a no-deal to happen; most Tory MPs, including several Cabinet ministers, last week voted against having any extension to Brexit.
READ MORE: Theresa May 'determined' that MPs should have another chance to vote on her Brexit deal
Nicky Morgan, the former Education Secretary and a leading Remainer, described the prospect of an effective one-minute-to-midnight vote as “absolutely jaw-dropping”.
The suggestion of a March 28 vote, aired on Channel Four News, could be preceded by a vote on a “paving motion” to get round the controversial ruling by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker – that the Government could not bring back for debate and vote a plan that was substantially the same as the one that had been already defeated – proving MPs wanted a third vote on the PM’s plan.
Earlier, Mrs May faced Brexit pressure from Brussels after Michel Barnier made clear Britain had to come up with “something new” to secure a longer delay than just a few weeks.
The bloc’s chief negotiator insisted it was the EU27’s duty to ask whether any extension to withdrawal would be “useful” given it would increase uncertainty and costs.
Last night, the PM was preparing to write a letter to Donald Tusk, the European Council President, ahead of Thursday’s summit to set out her extension request.
During another fraught Cabinet meeting Mrs May made clear she wanted MPs to have another vote on her plan "as soon as possible".
One source suggested she warned the Speaker's intervention had made Parliament a “laughing stock” and the risk to Brexit now meant it was “Parliament versus the People”.
But her senior colleagues emerged from the weekly meeting not knowing her firm intention on extension while No 10 also refused to tell journalists what the plan was.
Andrea Leadsom, the Commons Leader, was said to have argued strongly for a final end date of June 30 and underlined the tense atmosphere by tearing into colleagues around the Downing St table, declaring: “This is now a Remain Cabinet, not a Brexit Cabinet.”
It is believed in her letter the PM will indeed ask her EU counterparts for an end date of June 30 but with the possibility of extending the delay for up to two years to December 2021.
Earlier, Mrs May admitted Britain had been plunged into “crisis” as she expressed her "absolute determination" that MPs should have another chance to vote on her Brexit deal despite the shock ruling on it by the Speaker.
Westminster sources suggested Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists were moving towards backing Mrs May’s deal. One former Cabinet minister said he now expected the DUP to swing behind the PM in next week’s expected meaningful vote and that she now had a “50/50 chance” of getting it through.
READ MORE: Cable: May more likely to agree to People's Vote than Corbyn
Elsewhere, Sir Vince Cable, claimed Mrs May was more likely to agree to a People’s Vote than Jeremy Corbyn, after a meeting between opposition party leaders about a second EU poll.
The Liberal Democrat chief claimed there were “fundamental differences” with the Labour leader, adding he was “looking for a new form of Brexit and that is not where we are”.
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