Theresa May will launch a desperate bid to save her ‘historic’ Brexit deal in the Commons after 94 Tory MPs claim EU have won
THERESA May today launches a desperate 17 day campaign to save her Brexit deal as her critics claimed the EU have won.
The PM sealed a ‘historic’ divorce deal with Europe’s 27 other leaders in Brussels yesterday after 20 painstaking months of talks.
The Sun can reveal that the ‘meaningful vote’ to now pass it in the Commons has been fixed by No10 for December 12.
A marathon five-day debate for MPs to discuss it is due to start the week before, on Wednesday December 5.
Mrs May faces a Herculean task - and could well be forced from power if she fails.
A total of 94 Tory MPs have spoken out against the deal, along with every opposition party leader too
Therea May has pitched Parliament against the people as she ignited a titanic struggle to persuade angry MPs to pass her Brexit deal.
After 20 painstaking months of negotiations, EU leaders held a swift summit to rubber stamp a divorce agreement with the PM yesterday.
But by last night, 94 of her own Tory MPs had spoken out against the deal, along with every opposition party leader too.
That leaves Mrs May with a mammoth task to win a Commons vote - now set for December 12, The Sun can reveal - in just 17 days time.
Instead, Mrs May launched an audacious bid to go above MPs heads and appeal directly to the nation for help in lobbying them.
She announced she will lead “a crucial national debate in our country over the next few weeks” and “make the case for this deal with all my heart”.
Ahead of a tumultuous fortnight in British politics:
- Other EU leaders tried to help Mrs May by warning there will be no second offer.
- But France and Spain turned the screw on Theresa May as they vowed to exploit the Brexit deal to extract big concessions on fishing and Gibraltar.
- The PM will begin a tour of all four corners of the UK tomorrow to sell her deal, travelling to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- But The Sun can also reveal that Cabinet ministers are planning for Britain to join an EU halfway house, EFTA, with the help of Labour rebels after giving up hope that the deal will pass.
- Writing in The Sun, former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab today calls on the nation to “steel ourselves” to reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal and make the EU one final offer instead.
Mrs May will again challenge bitter critics on her own green benches in the Commons today with a statement on the deal to all MPs.
She will tell them: “I can say to the House with absolute certainty that there is not a better deal available. My fellow leaders were very clear on that themselves yesterday.
“We can back this deal, deliver on the vote of the referendum and move on to building a brighter future of opportunity and prosperity for all our people.
“Or this House can choose to reject this deal and go back to square one.”
Insisting voters want an end to the EU debate, Mrs May declared: “The British people don't want to spend any more time arguing about Brexit”.
Dubbing the Commons showdown “one of the most significant votes that Parliament has held for many years”, the PM framed the choice: “It will depend whether we move forward together into a brighter future or open the door to yet more division and uncertainty.”
She also tried to rule out any hope of renegotiating the deal, insisting: “This is the best possible deal, it's the only possible deal.”
Mrs May was also her most open yet on admitting she had been failings in the negotiation.
She added: “In any negotiation, you do not get everything you want. I think the British people understand that.”
But the PM still insisted that her deal honours the referendum at the same time as saving jobs, insisting that “on borders, laws and money - this deal delivers for the British people”.
Despite repeated grillings during a post-summit press conference, Mrs May refused to say she had any Plan B if her deal falls in the Commons, as well as again refusing to discuss whether she would resign.
Instead, she will today flip the Government into full-blown campaigning mode.
The Cabinet will meet for a two hour Brexit session tomorrow morning, including a presentation from the PM’s communications chief Robbie Gibb on how best to sell the deal.
And Mrs May will launch a nation wide tour tomorrow to sell her deal to all four corners of the UK.
A “war room” has also been set up in the Cabinet Office to lead the battle, under the control of the PM’s Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell.
Tory whips are reported to have dangled peerages in front of some rebel Tory MPs in a desperate bid to win them round.
The 27 EU leaders signed off the 585 page-long Withdrawal Agreement and accompanying 26 page-long Political Declaration on a future relationship after just 38 minutes of discussion.
But none showed any triumphalism in public.
EU Council president Donald Tusk offered warmth to Britain, saying: "We will remain friends until the end of days, and one day longer."
As the two-and-a-half hour EU summit broke up yesterday, some leaders tried to come to Mrs May’s help.
They yesterday warned British MPs any attempt to renegotiate Theresa May's deal would be rejected "within seconds".
Branding it “a sad day", EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said: "This is the best deal possible for Britain, the best deal possible for Europe. This is the only deal possible.
"Those who think that by rejecting the deal they would have a better deal would be disappointed in the first seconds after the rejection of this deal."
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier urged London’s MPs to "take their responsibilities" while Dutch PM Mark Rutte said the agreement was "the max we can all do".
One was Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who said: “The PM has been tireless in negotiations and has won the backing of the EU27. The country needs certainty”.
But others remained notably silent, including Brexiteers Andrea Leadsom and Penny Mordaunt – who are both still on No10’s resignation watch.
The Foreign Secretary even suggested the Government could collapse if Mrs May loses the meaningful vote.
Jeremy Hunt told the BBC's Marr Show: "It's not possible to rule out anything."
But asked if Theresa May could carry on if she was defeated, he added: "Absolutely she can".
Livid Leave campaigner and Tory MP Conor Burns said: “It has been a masterclass in British capitulation.
“The Prime Minister has managed to unite the whole country against the deal, Remainers and Leavers alike, as it’s crystal clear the EU have won.”
Deeply divided Tory MPs also continued to rip chunks off each other in public.
Anti-deal Brexiteer Conor Burns tweeted: “I'm genuinely sorry to see colleagues who have told me in person that this is a dreadful deal with the EU tweeting out the supportive line to take. That must eat at the soul”.
There was also bad news for No10 when one wavering Labour MP, Lisa Nandy, came out to say she could no longer back the deal.
The MP for Wigan told Sky News's Ridge On Sunday that its accompanying Political Declaration for a future trade deal "offers no guide as to what the future holds for the UK" and is “too big a gamble to take with our constituents”.
Ms Nandy added: "It's inconceivable now that when this comes before Parliament in just a few days time that I'll be voting for it”.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith also insisted he could not vote for the deal as it stands.
IDS told Sky News: “I don’t believe this deal has taken back control of borders, laws and money. It has ceded too much control”.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has reconfirmed Labour will oppose the deal in the Commons, dubbing it "a bad deal for the country" that "leaves us with the worst of all worlds".
Business leaders also spoke out to back the deal, as well as call for work to begin as soon as possible on the future trade deal.
The British Chambers of Commerce Director General Dr Adam Marshall said: “While this is a milestone in the political process of Brexit, and a significant personal achievement for the Prime Minister, it’s just one more step on a long road for businesses exhausted by three years of nonstop political debate and growing uncertainty.
“If the agreement clears the political hurdles ahead, there can be no pause for breath, and no let-up in the negotiations.”
The Sun Says
IT took EU leaders just THIRTY-EIGHT minutes to sign off the Brexit deal.
That tells you just how bad it is for Britain.
It is not a diplomatic compromise. It’s a surrender.
We cannot recommend this deal to our readers, nor to MPs.
Yesterday in Brussels, Donald Tusk and others lined up to express how sad they were about our departure.
But the solemn mask slipped within hours.
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez is already using the deal to threaten us over Gibraltar.
The puffed-up and pompous Emmanuel Macron has made it clear that the appalling “backstop” will be used to nobble our fishing communities. Does that make us an “independent coastal state”, as the PM says? Hardly.
And there are reports that the EU will cut us out of defence and foreign policy decisions.
What more will we give up over the next few years, with EU leaders trapping us in the Customs Union unless we bend over backwards for them?
How can we possibly sign up to a deal that relies on them showing good faith?
The Prime Minister is right when she says that politicians have a responsibility to honour the referendum vote.
But she is patronising voters when she says that people are bored of Brexit.
They don’t want any old deal just to get it done. We are defining what this country looks like for decades to come. Let’s get it right.
If the PM is worried we’re fed up now, that’s nothing compared to the anger that will come Westminster’s way if — despite a historic vote for independence and sovereignty — we are left merely a puppet on Brussels’ strings.
We will be forever competing with one arm tied behind our back.
It’s true the PM has “won” the power to set our own immigration policy, and it should be one that welcomes the world’s best and brightest, rather than one based on quotas and limits.
That means an end to the ludicrous “hundreds of thousands” target that the PM — and only the PM — still thinks is a good idea.
But we would get those powers with a clean break, too, as well as an end to the vast sums we send to the EU each year — and we wouldn’t be coughing up a “divorce bill” for the privilege.
The PM must call Brussels’ bluff. At the very least, the backstop must be revisited, or the next stage of negotiations will simply be an exercise in finding different ways to wave a white flag.
Brexit is NOT a damage limitation exercise, but a golden opportunity to build a bigger, global Britain.
With this deal, that chance is slipping through our fingers.