Brexit: Theresa May under pressure as third cabinet minister calls for MPs to vote on all options
A third cabinet minister has called for MPs to be allowed to break the Brexit deadlock through a series of votes on the options, as pressure grows on Theresa May to give way.
Greg Clark, the business secretary, said the Commons should be “invited to say what it would agree with” if – as seems certain – the prime minister’s deal is defeated.
The comment follows similar endorsements from Liam Fox, the trade secretary and a key May ally, and Damian Hinds, the education secretary, over the weekend.
Today, senior Labour MP Frank Field will launch a push by backbenchers for the Commons to be able to “rank its preferences” for potential alternatives to the doomed withdrawal agreement.
Meanwhile, former Tory minister Sam Gyimah – who resigned over the Brexit deal – accused the prime minister of effectively giving up on trying to pass it.
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May attempts to quash calls for a Final Say Brexit referendum
“Instead we have displacement activity designed to distract from last weeks failed renegotiation,” he tweeted, pointing to Ms May’s overnight dismissal of a Final Say referendum.
“And a concerted attempt to discredit every plausible alternative as they run down the clock. This is not in the national interest.”
The idea of non-binding indicative votes – on options including the “Norway-plus” soft Brexit model, a fresh referendum and a no-deal Brexit – is gaining ground as the stalemate drags on.
Downing Street has rejected the move so far in favour of continuing negotiations with Brussels into the New Year – despite the EU’s outright rejection of legal changes to the withdrawal deal on Friday.
But Mr Clark, speaking on BBC Radio 4, said other options had to be brought forward if the attempted renegotiation “were not to be successful”.
“I think Parliament should be invited to say what it would agree with, and that's something that I think businesses up and down the country would expect – elected members to take responsibility, rather than just be critics.”
Mr Clark also warned a second referendum would “continue the uncertainty for many more months”, but did not rule it out.
Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, David Gauke, the justice secretary, David Mundell, the Scotland secretary, and David Lidington, the cabinet office minister, are also understood to back votes on the options.
Instead, in a Commons statement today, the prime minister will turn her fire on Final Say supporters, claiming it would do “irreparable damage to the integrity our politics”.
“Another vote which would likely leave us no further forward than the last. And another vote would further divide our country at the very moment we should be working to unite it,” she will say.
Tom Brake, a Liberal Democrat supporter for the anti-Brexit Best for Britain group, said: “When even Dr Fox encourages the idea of indicative votes in Parliament, the Brexit project is clearly in jeopardy.
"All this just shows how the government are in total, complete and utter chaos. To call them rudderless is the understatement of the century.”
The controversy will come to a head at a cabinet meeting, when a separate group of Brexiteer ministers will urge the prime minister to step up preparations for crashing out of the EU instead.
