Tag: Steve Baker

The prime minister had suggested she would “engage constructively” with the indicative votes process, set up by a cross-party group of MPs led by the former Conservative minister Sir Oliver Letwin. But Downing Street sources confirmed that the government would whip Conservative MPs to oppose the business motion kicking off Monday’s votes. The deeply divided cabinet, which May’s own chief whip, Julian Smith, described in a BBC interview on Monday as the “worst example of ill-discipline in cabinet in British political history”, will be instructed not to vote. “I’ll leave it to historians to make their judgments on history,” he said. The prime minister’s spokesman said “soft Brexit” was “not terminology the prime minister has ever used”, but underlined her continued objections to Britain remaining part of a customs union. Would the UK be better off in or out of a customs union? Many Brexiters on the Conservative benches, including within the cabinet, are vehemently opposed to accepting a customs union. I’ve said that before. But we are approaching the point where the stakes are now so very high, and so transcend party politics and what this country is about, and the fundamental British value that political power rests on consent, that I think these things are coming on to the table.” Downing Street suggested it would be for the cabinet at its weekly meeting to decide how to proceed, if, as expected, MPs supported a softer deal on Monday. But government sources suggested May could still aim to bring her deal to parliament for a fourth time on Wednesday – when Letwin and his colleagues plan to set aside another day of parliamentary business, potentially to pass legislation implementing the outcome of Monday’s votes.