Theresa May faces ‘guerilla war’ as Tory MPs give her week to kill off soft Brexit plans
TORY MPs have warned that Theresa May faces “guerrilla warfare” over her Brexit deal - giving her a week to change them or face a leadership challenge.
The Prime Minister has reportedly been threatened with a resignation every day to try and force her out of her Chequers plans for a soft Brexit.
A source told : “This is not going to stop, we want the Chequers plan killed, and we want it killed now. This is guerrilla war.”
Another source added that some ministers are choosing to stay in Government “by the skin of their teeth”.
A backbench group of Brexiteer MPs claim they have 48 MPs ready to sign a letter of no confidence in the PM if she doesn't change tack now.
And they are also considering voting against the plans when they come to MPs in the Commons later on this year too, which could cause a Brexit crisis.
A number of leaked messages on WhatsApp revealed the scale of infighting in the Tories as Mrs May continues to tackle the crisis in her Government.
, one message written after Mr Davis quit as Brexit secretary, Laurence Robertson, the MP for Tewkesbury, said: “The sycophants and careerists will rally round the PM and her position, whereas the rest of us will be fighting for the future of our country.
"Those will be the battle lines.”
In another knock back for the PM, Donald Trump said that he wanted to speak to his “friend” Boris Johnson during his three-day visit, which starts tomorrow.
He branded Britain “in turmoil” as he landed in Belgium for a NATO summit.
It also emerged last night that Tory Brexiteers are planning to hijack two key Brexit votes in the Commons next week.
Amendments to the Trade and Customs Bills are being “seriously discussed” by the European Research Group's senior MPs, The Sun revealed.
Its leader Jacob Rees-Mogg wants to use them to curb a fresh attempt by ministers to give themselves new sweeping “Henry VIII” powers.
Other members want to go further and table an amendment to block the PM’s new customs plan to collect EU border tariffs.
Both could win significant Labour support, and force the PM to back down rather than face a disastrous Commons defeat.
Earlier today two vice-chairs of the Tory party have quit in protest at Theresa May's Brexit plans today, in the latest threat to the Prime Minister's survival.
Maria Caulfield and Ben Bradley are the latest Tories to resign from their roles - saying they can't support her controversial Chequers plan for a soft Brexit.
It comes just hours after David Davis and Boris Johnson quit over the same thing, throwing the Government into utter chaos.
They took Brexiteer Steve Baker and a number of other junior ministers with them too.
Ms Caulfield, the Tory vice chair for women, and Mr Bradley, the Tory vice chair for young people, said they couldn't get behind the PM today. and urged her to change course.
Mr Bradley, who caused controversy for old blog posts he wrote saying unemployed people should have vasectomies, said in his resignation letter that he couldn't defend the plans to his constituents.
Who has resigned from Theresa May’s Government?
David Davis
The Brexit Secretary stood down last night on Sunday night after the crunch Chequers summit, saying he thought the plan Theresa May had made the Cabinet sign off on was “giving too much away, too easily”, and calling it “a dangerous strategy”.
Steve Baker
Mr Davis’ junior colleague at the Brexit Department, he stood down at the same time as his boss – also due to unhappiness over the Chequers agreement.
Boris Johnson
The Foreign Secretary threw the towel in on Monday afternoon, throwing Westminster into chaos. He then went on to savge the Prime Minister in his resignation letter, saying the Brexit dream was dying.
Chris Green
The Bolton West MP became the fourth Brexiteer to resign on Monday evening, announcing he was standing down as a parliamentary aide to the Department for Transport and saying: "Brexit must mean Brexit."
Conor Burns
A Commons aide to Boris Johnson, he also quit on Monday night - writing on Twitter: "I want to see the referendum result respected."
Maria Caulfield
The Tory vice chair for women quit too on Tuesday afternoon.
Ben Bradley
The Tory vice chair for young people threw in the towel with her. He said he could not sincerely defend the Brexit plan to his constituents.
He wrote: "If we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name, then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to No10."
And Ms Caulfield added: "This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party."
Mrs May's agreement would tie us to the EU with a "common rulebook" for years to come.
And Britain would effectively stay in a form of customs union for goods to make sure there is no border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The Soft Brexit agreement in 6 bullet points
THERESA May’s UK-Free Trade Area:
- “Common rulebook” would keep British producers bound by EU rules on goods - including farmers.
- Parlament would oversee these rules - but deciding not to abide by them would have “consequences”.
- Joint UK-EU “Joint Committee” to oversee and rule on disputes but these would be settled based on more than 40 years of EU laws.
- Britain to effectively stay in a customs union with the EU for goods - described as a “combined customs territory” - to avoid a hard border with Ireland.
- Britain to be responsible for collecting EU tariffs and implementing EU trade policy for goods passing through the UK.
- Britain to leave EU rules for services - with banks losing crucial EU passporting rights that allows them to sell their services across Europe.
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Ms Caulfield was unhappy at the day of chaos yesterday, saying it had been "hurtful" to see people who voted leave "turned into the enemy".
She said in leaked WhatsApp messages: "We have never once voted against the Government on this, we are not calling for a leadership challenge, in fact the opposite and have been constructive and flexible in our approach.
"But it would be disloyal to say all is well when if you poke your nose outside the door, it clearly isn't."
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