Four rebel Cabinet ministers ‘back plot to seize control and force soft Brexit’
Boris Johnson has slammed the planned attack claiming that voters will see this move as a 'betrayal' by the 'deep state'
A PLOT by senior backbench MPs for Parliament to seize control of Brexit is backed by powerful Cabinet ministers, it has been claimed.
It emerged last night that at least four members of Theresa May’s top table - Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond, Greg Clark and David Gauke - were briefed in advance by the senior Tories who have drawn it up.
None of them dissuaded the former Remainers from mounting the plot, and several “openly encouraged” them to press ahead with it to ensure a deal can pass the Commons, one senior figure close to it told The Sun last night.
The Cabinet ministers have all called for Mrs May to seek cross-party support to end the deadlock.
The plot’s architects, former Conservative ministers Nick Boles, Sir Oliver Letwin and Nicky Morgan, unveiled it yesterday and will publish a draft emergency bill to enact it today.
It sparked a bitter backlash from other Tory MPs, including ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who said it would be seen by voters as a “betrayal” by the “deep state”.
Under the plan, Theresa May will have three more weeks to pass her EU deal by putting it to a second Commons vote.
If she fails, power would then pass to the powerful Commons Liaison Committee - the chairs of its 36 committees - to devise a new softer Brexit plan that could command a majority, and delay Brexit by up to nine months to implement it.
Mr Boles argued: “It is not a coup, it is an expression of Parliamentary will. We are not going to allow no deal to happen”.
But his plan hit an immediate stumbling block as Liaison Committee chair Sarah Wollaston and her deputy Pete Wishart both baulked at it, revealing it had not been discussed with them.
Government ministers also slammed it, with Security Minister Ben Wallace branding it a bid “to usurp the democratically elected Government”.
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Boris Johnson told an LBC radio interview that it was “really playing with fire”, adding: “People will feel betrayed and I think they will feel that there has been a great conspiracy by the deep state - the people who really run the country - to overturn the vote of the people”.
Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne even joked that the PM should suspend Parliament until April in order to get Brexit over the line.
Mrs May replied: “He’s trying to tempt me down a road that I don’t think I should go down, but were Parliament to prorogue until April I would be denied the opportunity to be able to see and answer his questions on a regular basis and that would be very sad.”
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