Labour to call vote of no confidence in Theresa May's government before Christmas, says shadow minister

Labour is to call a vote of no confidence in Theresa May’s government before Christmas, the shadow Brexit minister revealed on Tuesday.

As Jeremy Corbyn faced growing pressure from his own MPs to lay an immediate no confidence motion, Jenny Chapman admitted: “It’s going to happen, it’s on its way....the vote of confidence will probably come before Santa does if I can put it that way.”

She later attempted to play down her comments on LBC Radio, tweeting she “might have got a bit carried away” but it is understood to be based on a briefing by Labour's Brexit secretary Keir Starmer to the shadow cabinet earlier in the day.

It followed demands from 37 Labour MPs and more than 30 peers and MEPs for Mr Corbyn to call a no confidence vote this week after Theresa May’s decision to defer the crunch Commons vote on her Brexit deal.

The four opposition parties - the SNP, LibDems, Plaid Cymru and Greens - also piled the pressure on Labour by saying they would lay a no confidence motion if Mr Corbyn failed to do so by close of play yesterday.

In the Commons, Mr Corbyn rejected the demands, saying only that the party would call a vote at the “appropriate” time when it believed it could win it. The DUP has so far maintained it will save Mrs May on a no confidence motion despite its opposition to her Brexit deal.

Sources close to the Labour leader indicated that the party could seek a no confidence vote if support continued to ebb away when she returned empty-handed from Brussels.

The Labour MPs calling for the motion this week are led by former shadow cabinet member Ian Murray and backed by prominent backers of a “people’s vote” including Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and Owen Smith, who challenged Mr Corbyn for the leadership.

In their letter, they said that given Mrs May could not command a Commons majority for her Brexit deal, “it is imperative to take action this week under the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act to table a vote of no confidence.

“If this fails we must commit to a public vote with an option to stay in the EU straight away.”

Mr Smith said: "This is the moment of maximum weakness for Theresa May because of the DUP's attitude to the backstop and the widespread collapse in faith in her government."

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, an advocate of a Norway-plus model rather than people’s vote, said that even if Labour might lose, it should still go for a vote of no confidence as its “constitutional duty to point out to the country that we have a government that is not able to govern.”

As the official opposition, Labour can by convention force the government to allow time for a no confidence vote where a minority party such as the SNP has no such right. It can table a motion, but it would require permission from the government for it to go ahead, according to Commons’ experts.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in Westminster, said he was prepared to act if Labour did not:  "I think Jeremy has to do that by the close of business today.

“He cannot delay. If Jeremy does not accept that responsibility, then, I'm afraid the rest of us will have to accept that responsibility and lay down that motion of no confidence."

The four other party leaders pressed their case at an event hosted by the People's Vote campaign which was also attended by Labour former cabinet minister Dame Margaret Beckett and Tory ex-minister Anna Soubry.

Ms Soubry said Labour should “bring on” a no confidence vote as it would pave the way to a people’s vote, but said she would vote with the government.