Leader of house known to be unhappy with some of 10 concessions set out by PM
Andrea Leadsom has resigned as the leader of the House of Commons, saying she no longer believed the government’s approach would deliver Brexit.
Leadsom, who has signalled she expects to launch a leadership bid, published her resignation letter after Theresa May resisted intense pressure to step aside.
Continue reading...Leadership contender seeks backing of Amber Rudd’s One Nation group
Boris Johnson is launching a bid to court One Nation Conservative MPs in the group of centrist liberals run by Amber Rudd, as he tries to pitch himself as a candidate who can appeal beyond rightwing Brexit supporters.
The former foreign secretary, who is favourite to be the next Conservative leader, is backed by Brexit hardliner Jacob Rees-Mogg but infuriated many Tory colleagues by backing Theresa May’s deal after months of campaigning against it.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, as Theresa May’s cabinet met to consider the contents of the Brexit EU withdrawal agreement bill
PM’s speech is called ‘A new Brexit deal - seeking common ground in Parliament’
In the urgent question in the Commons earlier on British Steel, which is on the brink of collapse putting 5,000 jobs at risk, Andrew Stephenson, the business minister, said the government “leave no stone unturned” in supporting the UK steel industry. He said:
I can reassure the house that, subject to strict legal bounds, the government will leave no stone unturned in its support for the steel industry ...
We can only act within the strict bounds of what is legally possible under domestic and European law.
Continue reading...Chancellor argues no-deal Brexit would betray leave vote, as chances of PM’s bill fade
The expected demise of Theresa May’s Brexit plan has sparked open lobbying over an alternative Tory vision, with the chancellor, Philip Hammond, arguing that proponents of a no-deal Brexit are betraying the referendum result.
The cabinet will on Tuesday discuss the final details of what Downing Street call a “new and improved deal” to be presented to MPs, expected to include reassurances on areas including the Irish backstop, workers’ rights and environmental protections.
Continue reading...Prime minister will ask her cabinet to sign off on concessions this week
Theresa May will ask her cabinet to sign off a package of Brexit concessions this week, as she gears up for one last bid to win over MPs and salvage something concrete from her troubled premiership.
With the Conservatives on course for a drubbing in Thursday’s European elections, the prime minister hopes the results will focus the minds of her own MPs and persuade them to support the long-awaited withdrawal agreement bill (WAB).
Continue reading...Conservative leadership contenders will shepherd the party to disaster if they adopt the “comfort blanket of populism” in response to Nigel Farage, scores of Tory MPs will warn this week.
Eight cabinet ministers are among a group of 60 modernising MPs who will call on contenders for the leadership to “reject narrow nationalism” in their quest to replace Theresa May. The warning comes with Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, who have both said they are willing to back a no-deal Brexit, emerging as the favourites among Tory members. Johnson is the frontrunner.
Continue reading...Shadow Brexit secretary says impasse could be broken by allowing confirmatory vote
The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has blamed “wannabe Tory leaders” for the breakdown of cross-party talks as he renewed his call for a second referendum on leaving the EU.
The government and Labour sought to blame each other after talks to find a compromise Brexit plan collapsed on Friday, leaving any remaining hopes of an imminent solution to the impasse in tatters.
Continue reading...Tories and Labour point to each other’s internal divisions after negotiations fail
The government and Labour have sought to blame each other after cross-party talks to find a compromise Brexit plan collapsed, leaving any remaining hopes of an imminent solution to the impasse in tatters.
While both sides insisted the discussions had taken place in good faith, Theresa May said a sticking point had been Labour splits over a second referendum.
Continue reading...1922 Committee agrees to let PM wait until after vote on withdrawal agreement bill in early June
Theresa May has agreed to set a timetable for her departure as prime minister in the first week of June, leading MPs to believe she will trigger a leadership contest before the summer.
Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, said she would agree a timetable for the election of a new leader after her Brexit legislation returned to parliament for a final attempt in the week of 3 June.
Continue reading...Prime minister hopes to forestall leadership challenge as talks with Labour continue despite lack of progress
Theresa May has pledged to give MPs another opportunity to vote on Brexit early next month, with or without Labour’s backing, after Jeremy Corbyn raised concerns about her ability to deliver on a cross-party deal.
The prime minister called a meeting with the Labour leader on Tuesday night to take stock of the Brexit negotiations, as the government sought to inject fresh urgency into the process. The pair held an hour-long meeting alongside the two parties’ chief whips.
Continue reading...Prime minister under pressure from 14 senior party figures to abandon cross-party pact
Theresa May’s Brexit talks with Labour have been criticised as a “blind alley” as she came under intense pressure from 14 senior party figures to abandon the idea of a cross-party pact.
The former defence secretary Michael Fallon said the talks should be stopped, after he joined 12 other former cabinet ministers and Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, in warning No 10 against any deal that involved a customs union.
Continue reading...PM told that any deal involving customs union would be ‘bad politics and bad policy’
Theresa May is under intense pressure to abandon cross-party Brexit talks, after a group of senior Conservative figures, including leadership contenders Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, issued a strongly worded warning against any deal that involved a customs union.
May’s cabinet, and Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, are both due to take stock of the talks on Tuesday, with neither side optimistic about the prospects for an agreement that could secure a majority in parliament.
Continue reading...Senior Tory and Labour politicians have issued frantic calls to their voters to back them in next week’s European elections after a new poll showed support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party had soared to a level higher than for the two main parties put together.
Related: ‘Labour should be pushing for a second referendum - I may vote Green’
Continue reading...1922 Committee chair wants to find out PM’s resignation timetable at their meeting
Theresa May should set a date next week for her departure, the chair of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee has said.
Sir Graham Brady said it would be strange if a scheduled meeting with the prime minister and the group’s leaders next week did not result in a clear understanding of her departure timetable.
Continue reading...Candidates say the party is ‘almost in denial’ over vote and will not publish manifesto
Conservative officials fear the party could come sixth in the European elections, with their support plummeting to single digits.
Candidates running in the election said the party was “almost in denial” that the poll was happening and continued to insist they would not need to take up their seats in the European parliament, despite fading prospects for a cross-party deal with Labour that would enable Brexit to happen before 2 July.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Jeremy Corbyn launching Labour’s Euro elections campaign
Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scottish voters to treat both Labour and the Conservatives as pro-Brexit parties in the European elections, claiming only the Scottish National party has the weight to fight to remain in the EU.
Describing the vote on 23 May as the most important European election in Scotland’s history, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister also reiterated her call for a fresh referendum on Scottish independence before 2021, regardless of whether Brexit happens.
It is striking, I would say depressingly, just how close together Labour and the Tories are on Brexit. On this defining issue of our time, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May have so much more in common than they like to pretend. They oth want to take Scotland and the UK out of the European Union.
There is no escaping the fact that Labour is a pro-Brexit party, just as the Tories are a pro-Brexit party.
Continue reading...PM agrees to meet 1922 Committee next week, amid pressure to reveal her departure date
Theresa May has bought herself another week’s grace as prime minister, hinting she will bring the EU withdrawal bill to parliament before the European elections and promising to meet a powerful backbench committee who have demanded that she set out her timetable for stepping down.
After a fortnight of furious demands by Tory MPs that she give a firm date for her departure, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, said May had agreed to meet him and the 13-strong executive of Tory backbenchers next week.
Continue reading...Paralysis over Brexit means the country is burying its head in the sand over the very real challenges ahead
The European elections Theresa May never intended Britain to participate in are now only two weeks away. They are inevitably being fought as a proxy contest for Brexit by all the political parties. The results will be interpreted as a verdict on Brexit too, just as last week’s English local elections have been, and probably in much the same careless way.
Yet it would be a stretch to pretend that, for once in our recent history, the UK’s European elections are actually focusing on Britain’s and Europe’s place in the 21st-century world. The truth is far less flattering. These elections can better be understood as another episode in the national – and, in particular, Conservative – trauma over the historic decline of British power, of which the referendum was an interim climax. The elections are therefore unlikely to be cathartic or cleansing. On the contrary, they are dragging us deeper into the ongoing psychodrama that was intensified by the vote in 2016.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments, as the government and Labour resume cross-party talks on a possible Brexit compromise
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on today’s cabinet.
1. Cabinet sources say Brexit Sec Steve Barclay raised prospect of leaving EU in October without a deal at meeting this morning - big discussion on deal prep planned for next week - source suggests push back from Clark saying position was clear now that couldn't happen
2. No substantive discussion of cross party talks at Cabinet this morning - PM apparently also raised Williamson's sacking and said again there was compelling evidence - sources close to him say he still hasn't been told what it is
Almost all the MPs who have publicly backed a second referendum on Brexit are opposition MPs who would vote remain again if given the chance. Only a handful of Tories have backed the idea. But there are some signs now that that is starting to change.
On Friday Eric Pickles, a former Tory MP who now sits in the House of Lords, said that, much to his own surprise, he had now come round to the view that, if MPs cannot pass a deal, the public should be asked to decide.
If we cannot do this, if this is beyond us, and if we fail, then another referendum is inevitable.
If we fail, if there can be no compromise between the parties, I can actually see then the logic, and other people will be demanding another referendum. And those like me who have genuine concerns about what will happen to our society if we go through this process again, we will lose that debate over the referendum, because it will be the only option then left available to try to break the gridlock that we’ve entered into.
Talking to them, I think they are so obsessed with this issue, and they are so determined not to compromise in any way, they feel almost as if any form of compromise is some sort of betrayal. And certainly that narrative, one gets a great deal on Twitter: ‘This is a betrayal’, ‘This is a betrayal to the country’, ‘We are not fulfilling what the British people voted for’. I think that’s for the birds – it’s crazy …
I have to say, wouldn’t it be ironic if the ERG, the Eurosceptic caucus, through their intransigence, actually result in another referendum which will potentially overturn the previous result.
Continue reading...Corbyn faces opposition from at least 60 MPs to a customs pact with May without a second vote
Jeremy Corbyn will not be able to get enough of his MPs to back a Brexit deal without the promise of a second referendum, even if Theresa May makes a big offer on a customs union and workers’ rights this week, senior Labour figures believe.
Senior party sources said they believe two-thirds of Labour MPs, including several shadow cabinet ministers and many more frontbenchers, would refuse to back a deal without a people’s vote attached.
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