Tag: Ben Bradshaw

The remain-supporting Conservative MP, Dominic Grieve, is facing deselection by his party after losing a confidence vote held by his local association by 182 to 131 votes. And, while he remains its MP for the time being, a meeting will soon be convened to discuss his future. Grieve has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that parliament has a significant influence over how Brexit is managed, with the prime minister struggling to force her deal through the Commons. He is also a prominent remainer, has called for a second referendum and addressed a pro-EU rally attended by an estimated one million people in Westminster last weekend. Following the announcement of his defeat on Friday evening, Grieve was defended by fellow parliamentarians from his own party, and others. Antoinette Sandbach (@Sandbach) Dominic Grieve is principled intelligent and an outstanding politician and lawyer. He has been true to his values and beliefs. I’ve no intention of leaving it.” He has not commented following the announcement of his defeat at the Beaconsfield association. “I took the decision to ‘fight City Hall from within’ and resigned as Ukip chairman to join the Tory party a year ago,” Conway reportedly told local members. In a statement released on Friday evening, Beaconsfield Conservative association’s chair, Jackson Ng, said: “I am pleased to see over 350 members attend.

A Downing Street source said: “This is not meaningful vote three.” The leader of the Commons, Andrea Leadsom, said MPs would sit on Friday and hold a debate on Brexit. She did not specify what sort of vote would result, and repeatedly rebuffed MPs’ questions on the subject. Leadsom said only that the vote would get around the ruling of the Speaker, John Bercow, that the same motion could not be voted on yet again. Read more Leadsom was also asked whether ministers wanted to decouple the withdrawal agreement for a separate vote, distinct from the government’s outline plan for a future relationship with the EU, but declined to specify, saying MPs would have to await the motion. The Labour MP Ben Bradshaw, who fears the motion could be “more trickery”, said it would not be illegal for the government to seek to pass just the withdrawal agreement, without MPs having a say on the plan for the future relationship. Brexit is a national crisis. Conservative sources had claimed that she and other ministers would continue talks with the pro-union party in the hope they would have the numbers to pass a deal. However, a source close to the DUP said: “No talks planned today.” May fails to convince DUP and ERG 'Spartans' to back her Brexit deal Read more The decision not to hold talks on Thursday will also fuel speculation that further talks could be shelved altogether. The DUP, whose votes give the Tories a majority in parliament, said on Wednesday that May’s Brexit deal posed “an unacceptable threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom” because it could impose new barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Hopes that this might mean that the DUP could abstain on a future vote were dashed on Thursday night after Dodds said: “The DUP do not abstain on the union.” On Wednesday, a spokesman for the DUP said the backstop had “the potential to create an internal trade border within the United Kingdom and would cut us off from our main internal market, being Great Britain”.