Theresa May ready to ditch third vote on Brexit deal and trigger two-year delay if she doesn’t get support
THERESA May is ready to ditch her Brexit deal rather than face a third humiliating defeat.
The PM will not force a vote this week unless she is convinced she has the support to get it through.
In a stark message to dithering Tory MPs, she vowed there will be no fourth attempt if she fails this time.
She warned it will almost certainly lead to a two-year delay and declared bluntly: “It hardly bears thinking about.”
With just 12 days until departure day, it would mean going back to square one – handing over billions to the EU and fighting the European elections.
Ministers are pinning their hopes on talks aimed at wooing the DUP’s ten MPs behind the deal.
BIG GUNS NEED TO CHANGE THEIR MINDS
Several Eurosceptic Tories who have twice voted it down are ready to re-think if the Ulster Unionists climb on board.
Last night former Cabinet minister Esther McVey revealed she will “hold her nose” and vote for the deal if it comes back to the Commons this week.
Tory big guns Iain Duncan Smith and Jacob Rees-Mogg are among 20 or more Eurosceptics who could also be persuaded to change their minds.
The DUP said there are “still issues to be discussed” with the government to convince them Northern Ireland will be treated no differently from the rest of the UK under the deal’s backstop clause.
But they insisted that extra cash for the province was not being discussed.
Mrs May has a three-day window to call a vote before she goes to the European Council in Brussels on Thursday.
She said if MPs back the deal, she will seek a short technical extension to Article 50 to pass the necessary laws.
But she added: “The alternative if Parliament cannot agree the deal by that time is much worse.”
TAXPAYER BILLIONS INTO EU COFFERS
It would mean holding EU elections in May at a cost to taxpayers of £108 million – and pouring billions of pounds more into EU coffers.
Mrs May said: “The idea of the British people going to the polls to elect MEPs three years after voting to leave the EU hardly bears thinking about.
“There could be no more potent symbol of Parliament’s collective failure.”
'Brexit now' call
THIRTY per cent of voters believe a delay to Brexit beyond March 29th would be “totally unacceptable”.
A survey by OnePoll found that only 15 per cent would put up with a short delay of about three months to pass the needed laws.
One in five voters want the whole process stopped completely following Theresa May’s second defeat on her deal last week.
Just 16 per cent would vote Tory in the EU elections if Brexit was delayed, with 23 per cent voting Labour and 14 per cent for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
MOST READ IN BREXIT
Government chief whip Julian Smith has been accused of “double standards” for refusing to discipline MP Nick Boles for quitting his Conservative association.
Mr Boles resigned yesterday amid efforts by local activists to deselect him for opposing a “no deal” Brexit.
But he vowed to stay on as Grantham and Stamford MP and take the Tory whip if it was offered to him on “acceptable terms”.
Mr Smith said Mr Boles continued to be a “valuable member” of the party.
The Sun on Sunday says
ENOUGH is enough on the Brexit shambles. We want out as soon as possible.
A poll today shows that 28 per cent want PM Theresa May to ignore MPs and leave the EU without a deal.
But if her exit plan does not get past Parliament, Britain’s departure could be postponed for two years.
As Andrea Leadsom says, a lengthy delay would be humiliating.
MPs must unite behind the deal on the table — or waste the chance of a lifetime to wave goodbye to Brussels.
Sort it. Anything else is a betrayal.
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