Tag: Tory

What now for Labour? Two key problems threaten the prospect of success: the prime minister’s almost non-existent authority, and whether it is ultimately ever going to be in Labour’s interests to do a deal with the Tories. This is also believed to have been a factor in the 31 October extension date offered by the EU. That was the calculation May made when she cancelled the first Brexit vote before the Christmas recess, but MPs returned still determined to vote her deal down. What now for the second referendum campaign? Once the question is agreed the Electoral Commission would then designate lead campaigners for both sides, adding more time to the process, before a 10-week campaign period. The People’s Vote campaigners have said that the EU would be minded to extend article 50 further if a referendum was already in play and more time was needed. The Brexit delay prolongs the sense of limbo for EU citizens in the UK and British nationals in the rest of Europe. The government wants the remaining 3.4 million to apply by the end of December 2020 if there is a no-deal Brexit, or by June 2021 if there is a deal. But the EU leaders hope that the threat of European elections on 23 May might push some Brexiters to finally back the withdrawal agreement.

Those close to the Labour side have expressed surprise the talks have centred on persuading the opposition of the benefits of May’s negotiated deal, with extra involvement for parliament on the next phase of the deal. His comments suggest he would be unable to remain in the cabinet if May were to agree to a customs union. The political declaration, unlike the withdrawal agreement, can be reopened by the EU. But it is non-binding, even if May can be persuaded to include a permanent customs union and a hard Brexiter successor like Boris Johnson could disregard it. It has been suggested that the the prime minister would offer to rewrite the government’s withdrawal bill to enshrine any agreed customs arrangement in domestic law. However, senior Labour figures believe the protections in that amendment are relatively weak. However, there may be scope for the prime minister to offer a free vote in parliament on a confirmatory referendum if a deal is reached with Labour. Labour and trade unions have suggested the protections so far are insufficient and could be easily unpicked by future governments. It has called for full dynamic alignment of workers’ rights where new protections are automatically adopted – a demand understood to be under serious consideration. Environmental protections Gove has joined the talks on Tuesday with environmental protections and consumer standards likely to be on the table for discussions.

Boles had left local members unsure if he would be standing again for the Tories, not least after he resigned from the local association last month. He added that of the 345 emails he had received from party members and supporters before the association’s local AGM last month, just 22 had expressed support for Boles, while more than 300 wanted him gone. Sagar accused Boles of arrogance and self-importance: “Rather than Nick and politicians like Anna Soubry, who are far too London-centric, the real victims are the local electorates and associations which largely voted for leave.” Sagar rejected suggestions from supporters of Boles that the local association had been the subject of a “Ukip takeover”. “What should happen next is entirely up to Nick. On Tuesday, some councillors were reluctant to offer their views on Boles’s actions and how he had been treated. But one councillor, Bob Adams, said he was “very disappointed” that the MP felt he had to resign from the party. So from that point of view it’s sad that this has happened,” said the self-proclaimed supporter of a no-deal Brexit. “None has earned the right to lead the country after Brexit.” Conservative MP Nick Boles quits party after his soft Brexit plan fails Read more The MP may have a mountain to climb should he seek re-election on a non-Tory ticket. His resignation – which prompted siren calls from other former Tory colleagues in the Independent Group of MPs, now known as Change UK – means that a rural Lincolnshire constituency is being represented by a non-Tory for the first time since 2010. Others point out that no one has won an election in a rural Lincolnshire seat against a Conservative candidate since 1948.

Downing Street hopes to delay any Conservative party leadership contest until October in a move that will hamper the campaigns of established candidates such as Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid. As Tory contenders began manoeuvres this weekend to replace Theresa May after the third defeat of her Brexit deal, sources confirmed that those close to her will push for a new prime minister to be chosen after the party’s conference at the end of September. While her allies insist this would give May a dignified exit, others point out it would give time to settle on a candidate from a younger generation to come through to take on the established rank of leadership hopefuls. They join Johnson, Hunt, Javid, Amber Rudd, Michael Gove, Gavin Williamson, Andrea Leadsom and Matt Hancock, who are considering standing. In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, Raab set out plans to tackle knife crime – one of the main domestic issues May has faced during her premiership. “It’s 32 years since we had a landslide … Until we have a leadership that understands why that’s happened, we won’t be able to change it,” she told the Sunday Times. Johnson, the Tory former foreign secretary, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the Tory Brexit-backing European Research Group, have both issued “vassal state” warnings during the Brexit talks but gave their support to the withdrawal agreement last week. Of course, a new leader may, depending upon who it is, have less baggage than a prime minister who’s had to fight for everything from the moment she went into Downing Street. So that would change. It doesn’t change the instincts and convictions of people both in the remain and in the leave camp.”

Eight votes on alternative Brexit options, put before the Commons after MPs seized control of the parliamentary process from the government, resulted in no majority for any of them, although the vote was close on one softer Brexit option. Oliver Letwin, the Tory former minister whose amendment created the process, said this was to be expected, and that if May’s deal is defeated for a third time if put to MPs on Friday, this could forge unity if the only other option was no deal on 12 April. Letwin said he had expected no majorities on Wednesday. He said: “MPs will be voting on the basis of seeing what happened last time. “If it doesn’t then I think people will finally see that that isn’t going to happen by 12 April and I think quite a lot of Tories who didn’t vote for any of the options because they were, perfectly honourably, taking the view that until they had a last chance to vote for the prime minister’s deal they didn’t want to commit themselves to anything else, may come round and say: OK, we’ll choose among these options.” The indicative votes capped a dramatic day in Westminster during which May promised her MPs she would step down from No 10 for the next stage of the Brexit process if her deal is passed. But soon afterwards the Democratic Unionist party announced it still could not back the plan, making success in the Commons much less likely. “It’s very difficult to translate how people vote the first time, when they don’t know how other people are voting, to how they will vote when they can see how other people are voting, under new circumstances. Although there was no majority for one particular option, I think it showed that there were areas of commonality.” She told Today: “What’s imperative now over the next few days is that parties across the house work with each other to find reasonable compromises to try and navigate a way out of this.” At the same time, Conservative Brexiters said they had not given up on their plan. A proposal to leave the EU without a deal on 12 April, put forward by the Tory MP John Baron, lost by 160 votes to 400. He told Today: “The legal position is that if we cannot agree a course of action other than article 50 then the natural default position is that we leave on no-deal, WTO terms.

Another week, another neutral government motion on Brexit, and yet another set of amendments. Here are the amendments tabled, some of which will be voted on later on Monday. It will be the Speaker, John Bercow, who will decide which of these are selected. The backbench indicative vote plan Led by the Tory former ministers Oliver Letwin and Dominic Grieve, and signed by more than 120 cross-party MPs, this calls for Commons business on Wednesday to be set aside for a series of indicative votes. It does not specify what options will be voted on, or how the votes will take place. Read more B. The pro-Brexit amendment Tabled by a cross-party group of Brexiters, and signed by more than 80 MPs – the great majority Conservative – this notes that the Tories and Labour both stood in the 2017 election on manifestos promising to deliver Brexit, and says parliament “reaffirms its commitment to honour the result of the referendum that the UK should leave the European Union”. D. The Labour indicative vote plan Less prescriptive than the Letwin/Grieve amendment, this notes support for various Brexit plans, and calls on the government “to provide sufficient parliamentary time this week for this house to find a majority for a different approach”. E. Independent Group calls for second referendum The first amendment tabled by the former Tory/Labour breakaway MPs, and also signed by Lib Dem MPs, it calls for a second referendum to choose between a final deal and staying in the EU. It seeks a two-year extension to Brexit to hold a new referendum.

The Conservative party’s second biggest donor has called for a government of national unity to be formed as soon as possible to solve the Brexit crisis. John Griffin, the taxi tycoon who has given £4m to the Tories over the last six years, said the party should reach out to MPs from Labour, the Lib Dems and the Scottish National Party if it is to emerge from EU negotiations with a successful deal. It follows similar demands from fellow Tories including Nicky Morgan and Sir Nicholas Soames. Other Conservative donors have threatened to withhold funds unless it solves the current political crisis, it emerged on Thursday. Griffin, founder of the cab firm Addison Lee, told the Guardian that Theresa May’s government should use a new team and adopt a different negotiating strategy with the EU. Morgan, the treasury select committee chair, told MPs in December that the Commons should come together to stop a no-deal scenario. A national unity government was first formed during the Napoleonic Wars in 1806 and last occurred in 1931. Soames has previously mooted the idea of a national unity government, telling Channel 4 News: “I must say, if I had my way, we would have a national government to deal with this. It is the most serious problem this country has faced since the war.” It emerged on Thursday that donations to the Conservatives are drying up as backers unhappy with splits over Brexit refuse to fund the party. All said they were unsure whether to give cash to the party at present.

She implied on Sky yesterday she was close to calling for a second independence referendum, because she has a mandate to stage one since the SNP won the most seats in the 2016 Holyrood and 2017 UK elections, and did so on a promise of holding a fresh independence vote if there was a material change in circumstances (in other words, Brexit). She can only exercise that existing mandate before May 2021 – the date of the next Holyrood elections. Yet on Thursday she said she actually wanted to see article 50 extended and then a second EU referendum, telling first minister’s questions: “Let’s get no deal properly off the table; let’s seek a lengthy extension to allow this issue to go back to the people.” That appeals to a large number of independence-sceptic moderate and centre-left Scottish voters: many more back EU membership than independence. Because then that “material change” in Scotland’s circumstances, her mandate, disappears. Best for Britain, the anti-Brexit campaign that favours a second referendum, has put out a statement saying that it does not want MPs to vote for that today. The debate today must focus on the pressing need for an extension to article 50 to confirm parliament’s rejection of a no deal cliff-edge on 29 March and protect the country from a damaging disorderly exit. So if the treaty provides for these, Art 62 does not apply. That means the whole treaty, not just the backstop. Labour’s Wes Streeting says there is “a considerable degree of discomfort” among Labour MPs who support a second referendum about the position of some on the Labour frontbench. He asks if the party will give wholehearted support to the Kyle/Wilson plan for a confirmatory second referendum (ie, backing a Brexit deal, subject to it being put to a public vote) if it comes to a vote.

In an unprecedented night of Tory splits, four cabinet ministers, Amber Rudd, David Mundell, David Gauke and Greg Clark, defied their party’s last-minute whip and refused to vote against the government’s own motion, after it was amended to rule out any prospect of no-deal Brexit. 7.16pm MPs back the amendment by 312 votes to 308, defeating the government. 7.42pm Tory whips attempt to force MPs to vote against the amended motion they had effectively already backed. Six other cabinet ministers also splintered to back a separate proposal for a “managed no deal”, despite the prime minister’s warning that the plan was doomed. If MPs agreed a deal, she said, the government would request a “short, technical extension” to article 50, a hint that May plans a third meaningful vote next week. Now it’s effectively a bad Brexit deal or no Brexit at all, which is absolutely ghastly.” The prime minister’s warning of an extended Brexit delay followed a disastrous night in parliament for the government. Cooper moved the amendment instead and the government was defeated by four votes. May’s warning about a potentially lengthy delay to Brexit came as it emerged the DUP is back in talks with senior government figures about what it would take for them to back May’s deal at a third Commons vote. Earlier on Wednesday night, May was also forced to allow a free vote on an amendment by Tory backbenchers based on the so-called Malthouse compromise, which suggested a 21-month transition to no deal. A commission spokesman said it was “not enough to vote against no deal – you have to agree to a deal … We have agreed a deal with the prime minister and the EU is ready to sign it.”

Conservative Brexiters have said they will assess the EU’s new assurances based on whether the UK could leave the backstop “at the time of our choosing”, with the decision likely to hinge on the revised legal advice of the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox. Joint interpretative instrument A legal add-on to the withdrawal agreement. Michael Gove said it was “make your mind up time for all of us” and that MPs would have to balance “a series of risks” when they voted on Theresa May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday evening. What we decide today will decide whether or not we will get a good relationship afterwards or whether we get spoon-fed what the EU wants us to be.” David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said the votes of Eurosceptics “all now depends on the attorney general’s legal advice. Play Video 2:20 Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Reasearch Group (ERG) of Eurosceptic Tories, said “many Conservatives will be heavily influenced by the DUP’s view”. The Brexit state of play: a guide to this week's crucial votes Read more The seven MPs are Nigel Dodds – the deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), whose opinion carries weight with Eurosceptic Conservatives – as well as the former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, the ex-ministers David Jones and Suella Braverman, the veteran Brexiter Bill Cash, and the backbenchers Michael Tomlinson and Robert Courts. May will need to convince the vast majority of Tory Brexiters and the DUP in order for her deal to pass and is likely to face continued opposition from Tory remainers, Labour and most opposition parties. Will Brexit be decided today? He said the UK’s unilateral declaration was meaningless. Starmer’s advice said: “The withdrawal agreement does not include a mechanism for unilateral exit from – or termination of – the backstop (or any other part of the agreement) even where bad faith is made out.