half-coxed
Hour by hour, how Theresa May’s doomed day went from hope to despair as MPs torpedoed her Brexit deal
When the PM dashed to meet Barnier and Juncker in Strasbourg at 8pm on Monday, she initially appeared to be in good spirits
THERESA MAY’s hopes of a Brexit breakthrough disappeared at 5am yesterday when her Attorney General delivered a bombshell legal judgement on her new deal with the EU.
After working through the night, Geoffrey Cox completed a brief text that would later blow away any euphoria building in Tory ranks.
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While he said the legally binding changes thrashed out with the EU “reduced the risk” the UK could be trapped in the Irish ‘backstop’ after Brexit, he warned they did not remove it altogether.
In a final, devastating, paragraph he said “the risk remains unchanged”.
Cox had warned the PM that his professional reputation as a barrister was more important than his reputation as a new politician.
And published at 10.59am, the damning 3-page text confirmed Brexiteers’ worst fears - and sent the Pound tumbling on money markets.
It sent arch Brexiteers into a panic as they realised it would be far harder to “climb down the ladder” and back the PM’s Brexit deal – having opposed it in January.
Critically, Cox had to publish the text before he had the chance to ‘sell it’ in the Commons – under a promise made the night before by de-facto deputy PM David Lidington to MPs.
“It sums Downing Street up,” one Cabinet source said: “The expectations management of all this has been awful.”
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Geoffrey Cox’s dagger in the heart capped off a miserable 24 hours for the PM which left close pals fearing her career could be over.
Faced with another crushing Brexit defeat, Tory party whips on Monday morning suggested replacing a second ‘Meaningful Vote’ on the PM’s Brexit deal with a Provisional Vote on an agreement they hoped to get.
Under the plan, MPs would have been asked to pass judgement on a deal that included changes to the backstop suggested by Geoffrey Cox in meetings with Brussels negotiators earlier in the week - but rejected out of hand by Eurocrats.
The Attorney General wanted to significantly lower the threshold for the UK to be able to walk away from the mechanism.
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Faced with Theresa May putting the Cox plan to the House of Commons, the EU picked up the phone and told No.10 they could sweeten the offer that had been made to Britain on Friday by EU
Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
The offer around legally binding assurances on the temporary nature of the backstop, a unilateral declaration from the UK that it could “disapply” the backstop and committing to work on smart technology at the Irish border.
It was enough to get Theresa May to board a plane at 5pm on Monday and fly to Strasbourg, where the European Parliament is currently sitting. “Downing Street basically caved,” one source said.
The PM arrived good spirits for her late night meeting with Jean Claude Juncker.
Details of the PM’s last ditch settlement with the EU were briefed out to Cabinet Ministers in a hastily convened meeting at 8.30pm on Monday.
David Lidington, the PM’s de-facto deputy, summoned colleagues who were available and briefed them on the “technicalities” of the changes the EU had agreed.
He then raced to the Commons at 9pm to hail “legally binding” changes agreed with the EU.
Critically, he made no mention of the unilateral declaration because of growing fears of a backlash in Dublin where Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had turned around on his way to the airport to convene an emergency Cabinet meeting.
Eurocrats finally signed off the declaration at 10.40pm – clearing the way for Mrs May and Jean Claude Juncker to present the new deal at a press conference.
Tory Ministers back in London hailed a breakthrough with one confident the PM had pulled it “out of the bag”.
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People had no idea why he saved the killer line for the last paragraph – it was though he went in two-footed. He could have softened the blow.
Senior Tory
“Even the SNP believe we may have squeezed it through,” the Minister said.
But as the clearly exhausted PM boarded a plane back to Britain – and ordered a large gin and tonic from cabin crew – Brexiteers and the DUP were keeping their power dry.
Ominously, arch Brexiteer Steve Baker said the new agreement was little more than “gloss” on the original deal.
And Ken Clarke dismissed the breakthrough as little more than “hair splitting nonsense” to win over “right wing nationalists”.
Despite the fears, Environment Secretary Michael Gove took up a long reserved slot on the flagship BBC Radio 4 Today programme to ‘sell’ the deal and urge colleagues to back the PM in the Commons.
He insisted: “We have additional legal weight behind our position.”
And he joked that the PM could pull off an unlikely victory to rival Manchester United’s Champions League shock against Paris St Germain.
Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt also insisted the changes were “hard fought for” adding: “They preserve the UK’s right to act unilaterally in our sovereign national interest.”
The light-hearted feeling was summed up when Geoffrey Cox tweeted “b******s” to Channel 4’s veteran presenter Jon Snow over claims about a row with No.10.
But within minutes the mood among Theresa May’s top team darkened significantly as a “grumpy” Attorney General turned up at Cabinet to deliver details of his damning legal judgement.
Jeremy Corbyn blasts Theresa May for 'threatening' no-deal after MPs reject PM's EU withdrawal deal for the second time
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It is not in any sense an improvement on plan or a development.
Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
One Cabinet Minister said: “He was saying how he’d been up until 5am writing his text and it was all heavily caveated.
" Let’s just say … it took the wind out of people’s sails. The PM looked absolutely shattered.”
The legal advice was then published at 10.59am – stunning Tory MPs. “It was like bursting the balloon with a pin – all the euphoria went,” said one insider.
A senior Tory said it fuelled talk of a breakdown in relations between No.10 and the Attorney General: “People had no idea why he saved the killer line for the last paragraph – it was though he went in two-footed. He could have softened the blow.”
Within moments Tory Brexiteers Downing Street was desperate to win over made it clear the PM’s revised deal appeared unacceptable.
Pound up on vote
THE Pound’s value against the euro slumped by more than one per cent within minutes of the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox giving his advice on the backstop.
It came after several hours in which sterling had risen on the back of the PM’s negotiations in Strasbourg on Monday night.
But after the sharp fall at 11am, the Pound rallied again when the deal was voted down last night.
Sterling hit €1.16 as investors believed the chance of an extension to Article 50 had increased.
Grilling Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay at a cross-party Select Committee, Tory ex-Minister John Whittingdale said the “final paragraph is pretty terminal”.
And fellow Eurosceptic Jacob Rees Mogg said the idea of a unilateral declaration appeared worthless – as Britain cannot leave “without the permission of the EU”.
He said: “The unilateral declaration doesn’t add anything because it simply says ‘we could ask to leave the backstop’.
"We’ve always been able to ask to leave the backstop, that is not in any sense an improvement or a development.”
The PM’s perilous situation was made clear as she began the Brexit debate at 2pm– with ranks of empty green benches behind her.
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Tory whips resorted to frantically messaging Tory MPs ordering them to go to the Chamber and support her.
With dire timing her Ulster Unionist partners in the DUP chose the exact moment to announce they would be voting against her.
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With her voice breaking up, Mrs May was barely audible as she began the most important address of her career – with the words “I beg to move” the motion.
As ex-Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith passed a cough sweet to the frontbench to help, she sipped a glass of water and muttered: “You should hear Jean Claude Juncker”.
It was a final brave act of defiance from a Prime Minister on a day of utter defeat.
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The Sun Says
THERESA May’s new Brexit defeat represents a catastrophic failure by a Parliament of pygmies.
They handed the British people the right to determine if we left the EU, solemnly pledged to see the result through and made it law. They have twice now rejected the only available deal and calamitously let the nation down.
Many have sold their election promises and constituents down the river.
Three years since the referendum and just 16 days before our scheduled exit, no one even knows if Brexit will happen.
This great country is in the grip of chaos which is terrifying families and crippling businesses. Our politicians should hang their heads in shame.
Mrs May’s deal isn’t great. But it would have got Brexit done, as a weary population desperately wants. It would have killed off a hideously divisive new referendum and more paralysing uncertainty.
So many MPs have been inept, dishonest or both. Very few escape blame.
For all her admirable resilience Mrs May has made fundamental errors. Not least on Monday when she secured changes from the EU then oversold them on live TV, only to have her own Attorney General knock them down.
Given his advice was so pivotal, why was he not in the loop throughout?
Or yesterday, so terrified of Cabinet Remainers quitting that she allowed her party a free vote today to rule out No Deal — our final bargaining chip.
Meanwhile Tory Brexiteers who rejected the deal have lost the plot.
We respect them for standing by Brexit, 17.4million voters and democracy. But how can they not grasp that Brexit is in mortal danger? They are vastly outnumbered by Remainers now hell-bent on imposing their will.
Some Remainers colluded with the EU. All have backed Brussels over Britain and now have the gall to lament the chaos they themselves have caused.
Their stinking duplicity is only matched by Labour’s. Corbyn’s mob take the public for fools, posing as Leavers one minute, Remainers the next. Their sole concern is their party.
How they whooped like excited kids as Mrs May’s defeat became clear. To them Britain’s grave plight is just a tribal game.
Then there’s the EU and its three-year campaign to humiliate and punish Britain, hoping to overturn our Leave vote. It has soured relations for a generation.
No wonder Tories do not trust Brussels not to trap us in the backstop.
No one can predict what happens now.
If the ERG get a third chance to back the deal they must take it. By then Brexit’s impending death should be very clear. But no MP should be in any doubt how voters see them.
Their stock was already low. Their conduct at this critical moment in our history has shamed Parliament.
PM Theresa May addresses MPs after they voted against Brexit deal for a second time
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