PM to offer MPs Brexit veto and EU time-limit deal as she warns UK faces chaos if her plan fails
THERESA MAY will this week unveil a hat-trick of pledges in a last-ditch bid to win support her Brexit deal – after warning the UK could plunge into chaos if it’s voted down.
She said the country faces “unchartered territory” if MPs oppose her agreement with the EU when it finally goes before the Commons this Wednesday – before a vote next week.
And insiders revealed she will deliver promises in three areas to win over the 100 plus furious Tory MPs who have vowed to oppose her.
She plans to produce a commitment from Brussels by Friday that will effectively time-limit the hated ‘backstop’ to a year.
She also hopes to offer a Parliamentary veto on the backstop once we leave the EU and a package of measures for Northern Ireland, which will see the UK align with any temporary EU rules the province is forced to accept.
The PM – who took her annual trip to a constituency swimming pool gala on Saturday – told the BBC: “What we’ll be setting out over the next few days is assurances, measures in these areas.”
The Sun Says: Plan B(rexit)
THE PM is clear “nothing has changed” on Brexit but that won’t be good enough for Parliament – or the country.
Without legitimate, serious concessions from Brussels, her deal will not get through the Commons. And with less than 2,000 hours to go until we leave, she still seems to have no Plan B.
That alternative plan should be a clean break — and the PM must have more confidence Britain can thrive on its own.
“If the deal is not voted on … then actually we’re going to be in unchartered territory.
"I don’t think anybody can say exactly what will happen.”
But the PM’s promise came as:
- Cabinet Ministers privately told The Sun the deal appeared doomed – “it’s an absolute mess,” one said.
- The Government prepared to release a new wave of No Deal preparation announcements from Tuesday – sparking fresh Project Fear claims.
- Insiders said the Brexit debate on the PM’s deal will begin on Wednesday with the vote due on January 15th – forcing MPs to break with convention and ‘sit’ in the Commons this Friday.
- Former Tory Minister Rob Halfon teamed up with Labour’s Lucy Powell to come out for a Norway-style Brexit – branding it ‘Common Market 2.0’.
- Pro-EU Tory and Labour MPs tabled amendments to the Brexit vote legislation – threatening to paralyse the Government machine unless a No Deal is ruled out.
- Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was confident the supply of medicines will continue “unhindered” in the event of No Deal.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, the PM once more ruled out any talk of a ‘Plan B’.
She also refused to rule out extending Article 50 or discuss accepting a second referendum if Parliament voted for one.
And she dodged being drawn on whether she will bring her deal back to Parliament AGAIN if she loses. She instead delighted arch Eurosceptics by referring to No Deal as a “clean break Brexit”.
Politicians said the lack of any new detail after the PM’s series of phone calls with EU leaders such as Commission chief Jean Claude Juncker last week was damning.
One senior Tory told The Sun: “More than 100 of us were opposed to this deal – and told to go away and reflect over Christmas.
“But to coin a phrase ‘Nothing has changed’. What have they been doing?”
Another said: “We’ve got, what, 80 days until Brexit and there’s been no progress at all.”
Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s Westminster leader, took to social media to lambast the PM and urge her to demand the EU remove the backstop from the deal altogether.
The backstop is designed to avoid a Hard Border in Ireland in the event a trade deal cannot be agreed with the EU by the end of the so-called post-Brexit transition phase at the end of 2020.
But it could tie the UK and Northern Ireland to EU customs rules indefinitely.
Mr Dodds said: “Theresa May still insists that what she has negotiated is a good deal. She should remember that it would already have been consigned to the bin but for her pulling the vote in December.
“The coming days will show if this Government is made of the right stuff.”
Whitehall sources said they believed Downing Street’s aim was to cut the size of defeat next week to “30 or 40” so they could go back to Brussels and convince the EU it is worth offering further concessions.
But senior Tories and Labour MPs told The Sun they were already in talks with Cabinet Ministers about alternative options. One MP pushing for Britain to pivot to a Norway-style Brexit – remaining in the Single Market and Customs Union – claimed ELEVEN Cabinet Ministers would back such an outcome.
Arch hardline Tory Eurosceptics said they were convinced the PM now favoured a No Deal over a second Referendum.
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The PM urged MPs from all sides to respect the 2016 referendum and back her deal – reiterating her warning that voters jobs were at threat.
She said: “We have got people who are promoting a second referendum in order to stop Brexit.
“And we have got people who want to see their perfect Brexit. I would say don’t let the search for the perfect become the enemy of the good because the danger is that we end up with no Brexit at all.”
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