Three ministers in Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet have broken ranks to say that Brexit should be delayed if an agreement that wins parliamentary support is not possible before March 29, the day the UK is due to leave the European Union.
Three ministers in Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet have broken ranks to say that Brexit should be delayed if an agreement that wins parliamentary support is not possible before March 29, the day the UK is due to leave the European Union.
The three – business secretary Greg Clark, justice secretary David Gauke and works and pensions secretary Amber Rudd – wrote in a joint article that they would join opposition ranks to push for an extension of Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty that deals with exits from the EU.
So far May has insisted that Brexit will happen on March 29, with or without an agreement. There is much alarm over leaving the EU without an agreement due its debilitating impact on the UK’s economy and other aspects of everyday life. The ministers’ intervention prompted immediate calls for resignation.
In Brussels, while there was little progress between May and EU leaders on the contentious issue of ‘backstop’ for Ireland-Northern Ireland, May’s Brexit Plan B will be put to vote in parliament on Wednesday. She is due to hold more talks.
The three ministers wrote in the Daily Mail: “If there is no breakthrough in the coming week, the balance of opinion in parliament is clear — that it would be better to seek to extend article 50 and delay our date of departure rather than crash out of the European Union on 29 March.”
“It is time that many of our Conservative parliamentary colleagues in the ERG (the pro-hard Brexit European Research Group) recognised that parliament will stop a disastrous no-deal Brexit on 29 March. If that happens, they will have no one to blame but themselves for delaying Brexit.”
Andrew Bridges, a pro-Brexit Conservative MP, was among those seeking the ministers’ resignation: “What they are actually saying is that they are rejecting collective responsibility of being in government, they are rejecting government policy.”
He told BBC: “In that case, they should do the honourable thing and resign from the government immediately.”
There are also reports that senior figures in the May government want her to resign after March 29 so that another prime minister can take forward Brexit negotiations on the political agreement with EU, the next stage of talks with Brussels on future ties.
According to The Guardian, “May wants to stay in place for long enough after Brexit to secure a political legacy beyond the fraught negotiations. But some ministers believe she should announce the timeline for her departure ‘on a high’ after the local election results, paving the way for a Conservative leadership contest over the summer”.
“Brexiters in the cabinet are keen to see a new leader take over for the next stage of the negotiations with the EU, which May has already pledged will involve more active involvement for politicians rather than advisers”, it reported on Saturday.
The three – business secretary Greg Clark, justice secretary David Gauke and works and pensions secretary Amber Rudd – wrote in a joint article that they would join opposition ranks to push for an extension of Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty that deals with exits from the EU.
So far May has insisted that Brexit will happen on March 29, with or without an agreement. There is much alarm over leaving the EU without an agreement due its debilitating impact on the UK’s economy and other aspects of everyday life. The ministers’ intervention prompted immediate calls for resignation.
In Brussels, while there was little progress between May and EU leaders on the contentious issue of ‘backstop’ for Ireland-Northern Ireland, May’s Brexit Plan B will be put to vote in parliament on Wednesday. She is due to hold more talks.
The three ministers wrote in the Daily Mail: “If there is no breakthrough in the coming week, the balance of opinion in parliament is clear — that it would be better to seek to extend article 50 and delay our date of departure rather than crash out of the European Union on 29 March.”
“It is time that many of our Conservative parliamentary colleagues in the ERG (the pro-hard Brexit European Research Group) recognised that parliament will stop a disastrous no-deal Brexit on 29 March. If that happens, they will have no one to blame but themselves for delaying Brexit.”
Andrew Bridges, a pro-Brexit Conservative MP, was among those seeking the ministers’ resignation: “What they are actually saying is that they are rejecting collective responsibility of being in government, they are rejecting government policy.”
He told BBC: “In that case, they should do the honourable thing and resign from the government immediately.”
There are also reports that senior figures in the May government want her to resign after March 29 so that another prime minister can take forward Brexit negotiations on the political agreement with EU, the next stage of talks with Brussels on future ties.
According to The Guardian, “May wants to stay in place for long enough after Brexit to secure a political legacy beyond the fraught negotiations. But some ministers believe she should announce the timeline for her departure ‘on a high’ after the local election results, paving the way for a Conservative leadership contest over the summer”.
“Brexiters in the cabinet are keen to see a new leader take over for the next stage of the negotiations with the EU, which May has already pledged will involve more active involvement for politicians rather than advisers”, it reported on Saturday.