Yahoo News Brexit weekly briefing: we now officially have two revolting parties
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On and on and on it goes … Theresa May appealed (again) to the Commons for more time to seek substantive changes from the EU27 to the Northern Ireland backstop, which pretty much all concerned know she is not going to get.
She then lost control of her party (again), suffering an embarrassing Commons defeat by 303 votes to 258 as the hardline Eurosceptics of the European Research Group abstained on a government motion because it appeared to rule out a no-deal Brexit.
The loss only strengthened Brussels’ belief that the prime minister will never be able to forge a consensus in her warring party; its chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told EU diplomats her strategy had “failed” and she must now work cross-party to build support for the withdrawal agreement.
The European council president, Donald Tusk, meanwhile, said the bloc was still waiting for “realistic” proposals from the British government, and an EU source said the UK was merely “pretending to negotiate”.
There are no signs from inside the Conservative party that the Brexit hatchet is about to be buried. May wrote to her MPs urging them to unite.
But the leading pro-European MP Dominic Grieve said a dozen ministers could resign in the event of a no-deal Brexit. And the ERG have warned it will not settle for less than the scrapping of the backstop. Plus wealthy Tory financier Jeremy Hosking has registered a new party to champion a hard Brexit in a snap election amid rising concerns the Conservatives will eventually split over May’s strategy.
Over at equally conflicted Labour, seven MPs - Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey – resigned from the party over Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, including his approach to Brexit and in particular a second referendum. They will sit as a new independent group.
In the good news (not) department, Honda is to close its Swindon factory; more than 40 former ambassadors and high commissioners wrote to the prime minister warning her Brexit had turned into a “national crisis”; business leaders demanded answers to 20 crucial questions on trade; a bank of England rate-setter said Brexit was already costing the economy £40bn a year and low-cost airline Flybmi collapsed, blaming Brexit uncertainty.
What next
Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, will set out how the government thinks the backstop problem can be legally solved on Tuesday, and Corbyn will meet Barnier and other EU figures to try to break the impasse and get May to back a customs union.
Other than that, it’s looking increasingly like 27 February could be a defining Brexit moment. May confirmed in her statement that if by then she has still not put a revised deal to parliament, the government will table another amendable motion.
She could well try to table a deal later than this, though, and many MPs worry she could either inadvertently trigger a no-deal Brexit by waiting too long for a non-existent breakthrough – or even that she may actively prefer this to a deal that would split her party.
Delays beyond 27 February could trigger cabinet resignations and moves by the Commons to seize control of the process, including a new cross-party plan led by Labour’s Yvette Cooper and the Tories Oliver Letwin seeking to give MPs a vote between no deal and an extension to article 50 by the end of the month.
Best of the rest
Japan almost cancelled Brexit talks owing to ‘high-handed’ letter – report.
UK’s richest man, Brexiter Sir Jim Ratcliffe, moves to Monaco.
Chemicals companies shift to EU regulation in no-deal survival plan.
Remainers plan mass march and key vote in last days before Brexit.
Florists: fresh blooms could become preserve of the rich in no-deal Brexit.
Project Fur: Dutch unveil big blue Brexit monster.
Liam Fox says ERG must ditch “ideological purity” in MPs’ Brexit vote.
Dutch PM on Brexit: UK is a waning country too small to stand alone.
Greg Clark accused of misleading MPs over £61m payment to Nissan.
No-deal Brexit would lead to vote on united Ireland, says Sinn Féin.
Seaborne ferry contract with Grayling office had no written backing.
Post-Brexit trade partners ask UK to lower human rights standards.
Brexit delaying construction projects, says Galliford Try.
UK has rolled over just £16bn out of £117bn trade deals.
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In the Guardian, Nesrine Malik argues that Britain – a country paralysed, polarised and falling apart, yet deluded about its global status – needs a day of reckoning, and Brexit will provide it:
The referendum aftermath has exposed an exceptionalism verging on delusion. It is an argument that reflects Britain’s inner turmoil on whether it is uniquely apart from the rest of the world, or cannot thrive on its own. It is a soul-searching, long-overdue questioning of the conventional account of Britain’s history. Is the country especially endowed with that historical grit and determination that helped to vanquish its enemies in two world wars and run an empire; or is it a country that ran that empire by means of brutality, and only won those wars as part of an alliance? Can we go it alone? Did we ever? A humbling must come to pass. Maybe, in the end, the country outside Europe will find its stride by confronting its issues rather than blaming them on others, and forging its own way. But there is only one way to find out.
Polly Toynbee says May is being held hostage by Brexit hardliners and does more damage every day she refuses to face them down:
The ERG is unappeasable. It pretends no deal is a vital “bargaining chip”; the EU sighs at the absurdity. The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, made mincemeat of the idea that no deal is a credible negotiating position. Dominic Grieve said it was a like a three-year-old holding its breath to get its way. But this is not about “leverage”: the ERG wants no deal. Working themselves into a froth of wrath, they will never vote for anything less. Delay as she might, Tory Armageddon day will come whenever the ERG demands no deal and May finally refuses. She is not the type of thrill-seeker to relish being in charge on no-deal Brexit day. The showdown with her party-within-a party will come, so why not face them down now? She could save some credibility, after all her humiliations.
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Fun times …
BBC trials no-deal Brexit website: pic.twitter.com/FzuUZrgPfJ
— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) February 18, 2019
