Brexit vote set for Jan 14 as Corbyn calls for confidence motion on May
Theresa May on Monday said MPs would not get a vote on the Brexit deal until mid-January as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tried to table a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.
The vote on her contentious deal was pulled last week when May conceded she would lose by a "significant" margin. The plan will be put to the House of Commons on January 14.
May told parliament on Monday that a no-deal Brexit would “risk the jobs, services and security of the people we serve” at the price of “turning our backs on an agreement with our neighbours that honours the referendum and provides for a smooth and orderly exit”.
Corbyn, who has struggled to present a coherent Labour position on Brexit, tabled the motion against May personally, rather than the government. He said MPs had "no confidence in the prime minister due to her failure to allow the House of Commons to have a meaningful vote straightaway".
Conservative ministers in charge of parliamentary business indicated they would not allow time for any debate.
The Labour leader swerved the normal convention of tabling a vote of no confidence in the government, which, if lost by May could trigger a General Election. Any victory for Corbyn would have been embarrassing for the prime minister, but only symbolic for her opponent.
Earlier on Monday, May's spokesman said there would soon be an announcement about spending the Treasury’s £2bn contingency fund as the dangers of a no-deal outcome were
MINISTERS CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES
Rival Brexit plan alternatives continued to be floated by Cabinet ministers on Monday as May desperately tried to avoid the prospect of a second referendum.
Business Secretary Greg Clark said MPs should be allowed to select their preferred Brexit option if the deal was defeated.
In an interview with the BBC, Clark said parliament should take the lead rather than simply disagree on the merits of May's deal.
“If that (May's plan) were not to be successful, we do need to have an agreement. We can’t just have continuing uncertainty. I think parliament should be invited to say what it would agree with. That’s something I think businesses up and down the country would expect elected responsibility for, rather than just being critics,” he said.
“One of the many problems with a second referendum is it would continue that uncertainty for many more months, and would likely add to the divisiveness that has characterised the last couple of years.”
However, in parliament May urged MPs not to "break faith with the British people by trying to stage another referendum”.
“Another vote, which would do irreparable damage to the integrity of our politics, because it would say to millions who trusted in democracy that our democracy does not deliver. Another vote which would likely leave us no further forward than the last.”
Trade Secretary Liam Fox on Sunday also said he said would favour a series of non-binding free votes.
“Personally, I wouldn’t have a huge problem with parliament as a whole having a say on what the options were,” he said, adding that the idea was “not one that cabinet has discussed yet, but, when you look at the options that we have, you’ve got to recognise that there a limited number of real-world options here”.
May endured a tough week after pulling the vote less than 24 hours before it was due to go ahead. MPs had expressed serious opposition to the Irish backstop - the insurance policy against a hard border with Ireland if no free trade deal is reached with the EU.
She then faced a vote of no confidence from her own MPs, which she fended off but only after agreeing to step down before the 2022 General Election. A trip to Brussels completed the trifecta of misery for the prime minister when the EU stood its ground and refused to renegotiate the deal.
On Sunday May found herself in a bad-tempered spat with with former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday after he called for a second referendum and criticised her deal.
“For Tony Blair to go to Brussels and seek to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum is an insult to the office he once held and the people he once served,” May said.