Tory MPs ramp up opposition against Theresa May’s Chequers proposals
Prime Minister Theresa May is facing mounting opposition from her own MPs as Tory backbenchers ramp up their campaign against her Chequers proposal.
Yesterday former Brexit secretary David Davis confirmed he would join rebels and vote against any deal based on May's Chequers plan, under which the the UK would remain closely aligned with the EU on goods and regulation.
Davis told the BBC the Chequers plan was “almost worse than being in the EU” and that a free trade deal with the bloc was still possible. Davis and fellow Brexiter Boris Johnson resigned from the government in July in opposition to May's preferred Brexit policy.
Davis is now one a number of MPs actively plotting to kill off the Chequers proposal before the Tory party conference at the end this month.
The European Research Group (ERG), a pro-Brexit group of Tory MPs, will meet tomorrow to discuss a plan for promoting their alternative Brexit blueprint. Morning Wire understands that Davis and Johnson are currently working with think-tanks and policy advisors in Westminster and will jointly present a new Brexit strategy just before the Tory party conference.
Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, chair of the ERG steering committee, said Chequers was “pretty friendless” and that it was difficult to see how it would pass through parliament.
He said opposition to the proposal was “not about [the party's] leadership” but was about whether the UK was approaching the negotiations in the right way.
“If the EU accepts Chequers it’s because we have conceded too much,” he said. “Chequers leaves us barred in to all the legislation and regulation that we want to be free of.”
Remainers have also opposed May’s Brexit strategy. Former minister Nick Boles declared yesterday that he had once backed Chequers but could no longer support the “humiliation of a deal dictated by Brussels; and the chaos of crashing out of the EU next March with no deal”. He is calling for a transition period during which the UK would be a member of the European Economic Area, similar to Norway.
Faced with growing criticism from both wings of her party, May yesterday vowed to stick to her guns over Brexit – and her controversial Chequers strategy. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph she said she would “not be pushed into making compromises that were not in the national interest”.
May said she would not “give in” to demands for a second referendum or so-called people’s vote on Brexit, saying it would be a “gross betrayal of democracy….and trust”.
"In the summer of 2016, millions came out to have their say. In many cases for the first time in decades, they trusted that their vote would count; that after years of feeling ignored by politics, their voices would be heard.
"To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy – and a betrayal of that trust.
"We want to leave with a good deal and we are confident we can reach one," she said.