Theresa May REFUSES to confirm whether she would vote for Brexit if there was a new EU referendum
The PM was taking calls on LBC when she said she would have to 'weigh up' all of the facts
THERESA May sparked furore last night when she admitted she didn’t know how she would vote in a new Brexit referendum.
Her Chancellor also risked incurring the wrath of Brexiteers by REFUSING cash in the budget to prepare for a "no-deal" Brexit - while the PM's deputy Damian Green openly said “it would have been” better if Remain had won the referendum.
The PM’s extraordinary admission came as she took calls during a live radio phone in.
Instead, Mrs May – who backed Remain in the landmark 2016 vote - said she would come to “a judgment” once she had weighed up all the facts.
Horrifying Brexiteers, it sparked immediate questions last night about whether the PM herself believed leaving the EU is the right course for the country – despite it being the Government’s most important policy in half a century.
One Leave backing Cabinet minister told The Sun the gaffe made them “want to cry”.
Mrs May refused to say which side she would back in a new In/Out referendum four times when quizzed by LBC radio host Iain Dale.
She protested: “You’re asking me to say how would I vote now against a different background. A different international background, a different economic background.
“Circumstances move on. I think we should all be focused on delivering Brexit.”
But when she was told former Remain-backing Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said last week he would now change his vote to Leave, a clearly flustered Mrs May added: “I could sit here and I could say I’d still vote Remain or I’d vote Leave, just to give you an answer.
“I’m being open and honest with you.
“What I did last time round was I looked at everything and came to a judgment and I’d do exactly the same this time round.”
The gaffe will throw Mrs May under fresh pressure over her teetering leadership of the Tories, having only just defeated a coup led by ex-party chairman Grant Shapps after her disastrous conference speech.
Meanwhile, last night Chancellor Philip Hammond dismissed demands from Brexiteers to use his Autumn Budget to commit billions of pounds to prepare for a No Deal scenario.
He said it would be irresponsible to spend taxpayers money on preparing for such a scenario.
It will fuel further anger among Brexit supporting Tories who want the Government to call the EU's bluff by showing it is actively preparing to leave THE EU if Brexit talks end without a new agreement in place.
In an article in The Times he insisted the Treasury will be prepared for "all outcomes" but is reluctant to sign off billions unless the threat of a no deal is imminent.
The admissions stunned Westminster, ahead of what will now be a painful grilling for the PM from Jeremy Corbyn and MPs at PMQs.
The pro-Brexit Cabinet minister told The Sun: “Oh my God. That’s the easiest question to answer. I just want to cry”.
Leave campaign boss and former Labour MP Gisela Stuart: “The duty of the Government to implement the decision of the referendum.
“It would have been more helpful if she has said she believes in this.”
Pro-EU campaigners leaped on Mrs May’s admission.
Labour MP Chris Bryant, leading supporter of Open Britain, said: “That the Prime Minister refuses to say which way she’d vote if there were another referendum, and clearly doesn’t believe in Brexit in her heart of hearts, makes her hard Brexit policy all the more irresponsible.”
The LBC phone in was devised by No10 aides as a high risk bid for Mrs May to reconnect with angry voters.
During it, Mrs May also refused to give a guarantee to all 3.2million EU citizens in Britain that they could stay on if there is no Brexit deal.
Quizzed by one worried European living here, Mrs May would only say: “We don’t know what’s going to happen.
“We are working on it, but I want EU citizens to stay - we won’t be throwing EU citizens out in future”.
The PM also lifted eyebrows when she named International Trade Secretary Liam Fox as the one Cabinet minister she would take with her on a desert island.
Making a joke about her cold last week that reduced her to a coughing fit during speech to the Tory faithful, Mrs May said: “Dr Liam Fox would be very practical”.
The Cabinet also met for the first time yesterday since the leadership putsch, as well as the civil war of last week that pitted Boris Johnson against Philip Hammond over Brexit.
In a strong show of support for the PM, her top table of ministers greeted her arrival into the room with a round of loud desk banging.
