Tag: Kenneth Clarke

No 10 is feeling the pressure to pull the plug on Brexit talks with Labour and move to an alternative plan, amid warnings that the opposition is in no hurry for a deal before the European elections. Ken Clarke: ‘Brexit is like a parody version of student politics’ Read more However, government sources acknowledge Theresa May is under much greater time pressure than Labour, which has little incentive to do a deal before the European and local elections that are likely to result in the Conservatives suffering heavy losses to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party. Ministers and their opposition counterparts are taking part in working groups on some issues this week, but there will be no discussion before Easter on the big issues of a customs union or a confirmatory referendum, making it easy for Labour to reject the prime minister’s overtures so far. The government’s alternative plan is for MPs to thrash out an acceptable version of May’s deal through a series of votes or by amending the withdrawal bill, but experts said there was barely enough time to do this in the five weeks before the European elections. Nikki da Costa, formerly the legislative affairs director in No 10, suggested getting the withdrawal bill passed by 22 May would “require a level of legislative aggression from government not seen in this parliament”. There is also concern in No 10 that Labour may not get behind the plan to let MPs amend the withdrawal bill to find a way forward. “We don’t know if they are going to work and it may be that we need to find a way to rebuild the Conservative-DUP coalition,” Hunt said. One Conservative MEP told the Guardian that it was “cloud cuckoo land” to think European elections can be avoided at this stage. Conservative party officials are privately acknowledging the party will lose around half of their MEPs. A Tory party source said: “As is usual, Conservative candidates are expected to represent the Conservative party.”

The Conservative party is coming under intense pressure to decide whether to take disciplinary action against Boris Johnson following his continued refusal to apologise for his controversial descriptions of fully veiled Muslim women. A complaint about Johnson has been lodged with Tory party chairman Brandon Lewis, who is responsible for the party’s code of conduct which says that Tory MPs and other holders of public office should “foster respect and tolerance” in their work. Lewis has to decide whether to launch disciplinary proceedings following a day of intense criticism of Johnson, largely from the liberal wing of the party, after he used a column in the Telegraph to compare fully veiled women to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”. MP Dominic Grieve said the former foreign secretary was “not a fit and proper person” to lead the party and said he would quit the Tories if Johnson was elected leader. Writing in the Guardian, Baroness Warsi said his language had made “hate crime more likely”. Lewis had personally asked him on Tuesday to apologise but Johnson, who is on holiday, has refused to do so. The prime minister urged him to apologise and said she agreed with Lewis that Johnson should say sorry for his remarks, which she acknowledged had caused offence in the Muslim community. Friends of Johnson claimed that the row was politically motivated, and that other MPs, including the former chancellor Ken Clarke, had made similar remarks comparing the burqa to a bag without similar reproach. Warsi accused Johnson of making “hate crime more likely” with indefensible “dog whistle” references to Muslim women. One cabinet minister, Jeremy Wright, said Johnson should have chosen his language more carefully and that he was “sure on reflection” that he would want to reconsider the language he had used.