Theresa’s big gamble: PM reveals a final vote on her Brexit plan could be delayed until just 17 DAYS before Britain is due to leave the EU as she rejects calls to rule out No Deal
Prime Minister Theresa May is hugged by the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov
Theresa May embarked on a high-stakes gamble last night after revealing a final vote on her Brexit plan could be delayed until just 17 days before Britain is due to leave the European Union.
Defying Cabinet calls to delay departure and take No Deal ‘off the table’, the Prime Minister appealed to Remainer ministers for another fortnight to win concessions from Brussels.
Mrs May said she was making progress in talks but not enough to hold a second ‘meaningful vote’ this week. Instead she set a new deadline of March 12 to win approval of a plan that suffered a shattering Commons defeat last month.
European Union Council President Donald Tusk, right, speaks with Theresa May during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit
This means pro-Remain ministers will now have to decide whether to follow through with threats to defy Mrs May and vote for a backbench bid on Wednesday to postpone the Brexit date.
If the backbench motion is passed, Mrs May would have until March 13 to get her plan through Parliament or be forced to seek a delay in the process.
That would set up a
And last night it emerged that the EU may insist that Brexit is delayed until the start of 2021 if the UK requests an extension of Article 50.
Mrs May’s dramatic gamble came 24 hours after Amber Rudd, David Gauke and Greg Clark signalled they could quit the Cabinet this week to back the backbench move themselves unless a withdrawal agreement is in place.
At least a dozen more ministers are considering their positions – potentially enough to allow the motion proposed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Tory Sir Oliver Letwin to pass.
Writing in the Daily Mail at the weekend, the Cabinet trio warned that ‘if there is no breakthrough in the coming week’ there was a clear majority in Parliament to delay Brexit rather than ‘crash out’.
The ministers, who all campaigned for Remain, described No Deal as disastrous, saying it would ‘see us poorer, less secure and potentially splitting up’. Their intervention led Eurosceptic MPs to call for them to be sacked.
Speaking on a flight to an EU-Arab League summit in Egypt, the Prime Minister insisted she still believed that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’.
But she refused to criticise the rebel trio and ducked questions about whether the fragile state of her Government made the ministers ‘unsackable’.
Mrs May said: ‘Collective responsibility has not broken down. What we’ve seen around the Cabinet table, in the party, in the country at large is strong views on the issue of Europe. That’s not a surprise to anybody.
