The Guardian
Theresa May pleaded with her party not to plunge Britain into “deep and grave uncertainty” by rejecting her Brexit deal, as she fought to shore up her authority after a bruising day of resignations and backbench mutiny.
At a sombre press conference following a dramatic day of turmoil, the prime minister said she believed “with every fibre of my being” that the 585-page agreement unveiled on Wednesday night was “the right one for our country and all our people”.
“If we do not move forward with that agreement, nobody can know for sure the consequences that will follow. It would be to take a path of deep and grave uncertainty when the British people just want us to get on with it,” she said.
Her defiant Downing Street statement came after an extraordinary 24 hours in Westminster, which included the resignations of two Brexit-leaning cabinet ministers – Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, and Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary – and a string of other junior appointees.
The future of several other cabinet ministers remains in doubt. Environment secretary Michael Gove was offered but turned down the role of Brexit secretary vacated by Raab. It is understood Gove sought to insist on a change of Brexit strategy, which May’s robust statement gave little indication she could accept.
It was unclear on Thursday night whether he could remain in his post having apparently questioned such a central plank of the prime minister’s policy. Friends said he was considering his position.
As the most senior figure from the Vote Leave campaign still inside May’s cabinet, his departure could pose a significant threat to her grip on Downing Street.
Gove’s fellow Brexiters Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary who was thought to have been trying to persuade May to give MPs a free vote on the deal, were also believed to be considering their positions.
The threat of a challenge to the prime minister’s leadership also appears increasingly serious, after the influential backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg publicly withdrew his support.
Pressed about whether she believed her authority had been dented by the string of resignations and the hostile reaction to the deal from many in her own party, May insisted “leadership is about taking the right decisions not the easy ones”.
“As prime minister, my job is to bring back a deal that delivers on the vote of the British people … Am I going to see this through? Yes.”
Raab had told chief whip Julian Smith of his decision to quit on Wednesday night after the fraught five-hour cabinet meeting that saw ministers grudgingly accept May’s deal. He held his post for just four months, after the resignation of David Davis.
Speaking on Thursday, he said he believed it was a “terrible deal” and urged May to change course.
“I felt the proposed deal with the EU suffered two fatal flaws,” he told Sky News. “The first one is the rather predatory terms being proposed by the EU, which I feel would threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom.
“Secondly, in relation to the so-called backstop, basically what that would do is indefinitely if not permanently lock us in to a regime which I believe would be damaging to the economy but devastating to public trust in our democracy.”
Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of pro-Brexit MPs, submitted his letter to the chair of the powerful 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, expressing no confidence in the prime minister’s leadership.
If Brady receives 48 such letters, he must announce a vote of no confidence, which could be held within days. More than a dozen others said they had submitted letters by the end of Thursday – though there was no indication the target of 48 had been reached.
At a hastily-convened press conference, Rees-Mogg predicted that a leadership contest could take place within weeks, and named a series of possible successors to May including Boris Johnson, Raab and McVey.
He was speaking outside parliament just as May finished a three-hour grilling inside on her Brexit deal, which saw a string of hostile interventions from Tory MPs.
During testy exchanges, May insisted she had clinched the best Brexit deal possible, but conceded that “difficult choices” had been made and that she “shared concerns” that the UK could be locked into the backstop arrangement aimed at avoiding a hard border in Ireland.
Jeremy Corbyn ridiculed her insistence that she would press ahead with the negotiations: “When even the last Brexit secretary, who, theoretically at least, negotiated the deal, says that ‘I cannot support the proposed deal’, what faith does that give anyone else in this place or in this country? The government simply cannot put to parliament this half-baked deal that both the Brexit secretary and his predecessor have rejected.”
As well as Raab and McVey’s departures, two more junior ministers – Suella Braverman and Shailesh Vara – also quit, along with two parliamentary aides.
Some senior Tories were infuriated at the wrecking tactics of Rees-Mogg and his colleagues, and May received staunch support from Nicky Morgan – whom May sacked as education secretary when she arrived in Downing Street – and Amber Rudd.
Alistair Burt, the Middle East minister, said: “I think we’re all a bit tired of this. Out there are real jobs, real lives and real people who would be sabotaged by a no deal favoured by Jacob. Enough.”
In her press conference, May made clear she remains determined to bring her deal to parliament, once the final details are hammered out with the EU27, and give MPs the chance to vote on it.
“Their job will be to look at that deal and consider the interests of constituents … MPs from across my party will look at that deal and recognise the importance of delivering on the vote of British people,” she said.
However, with Labour and the DUP pledged to vote against the deal, and a series of Tory rebels insisting they cannot back it, winning the “meaningful vote”, which is expected to take place in early December, looks like a daunting task.
The DUP’s Westminster leader, Nigel Dodds, said he could take May through a list of promises she made about the future of Northern Ireland but that would be a “waste of time because she clearly doesn’t listen”.
He told MPs: “The choice is now clear, we stand up for the United Kingdom, the whole of the United Kingdom, the integrity of the United Kingdom or we vote for a vassal state with the breakup of the UK.”
May began her press conference by saying that serving as prime minister was an honour and a privilege but “also a heavy responsibility”, adding: “That is true at any time but especially when the stakes are so high.”
She insisted that she was working in the national interest and not the Tory party’s or her own, but said that she did not “judge harshly” those ministers who had left government.
May is under pressure to appoint a new Brexit secretary, with final negotiations on the political declaration on Britain’s future trading relationship with the EU due to take place in the coming days.
Earlier in the day, Donald Tusk, the European council president, had said he would call a 25 November Brexit summit to allow leaders to sign off on the deal, unless “something extraordinary happens”.
When, later in the day, Tusk was asked about the resignations in London, he told reporters: “It is not for me to comment on the latest developments in London… the EU is prepared for a final deal with the United Kingdom. We are also prepared for a no deal scenario – but of course we are best prepared for a no Brexit scenario.”