TORY MP Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the Eurosceptic group the European Research Group (ERG), warned yesterday there is ‘trouble ahead’ for May.
He tweeted: ‘Leave-backing MPs voted to support alternative arrangements in NI but with grave misgivings about the whole agreement. ‘Now the PM co-opts us into accepting everything but the backstop and, on the backstop, accepting a codicil.’
He said a ‘further substantial defeat’ for the agreement should be expected ‘if all we see is a codicil – a “joint interpretive instrument”’. Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns tweeted: ‘No PM, we said we would support the amendment to send a message to EU re the backstop, we all said there are other issues with WA (withdrawal agreement).’ In her Telegraph article yesterday, May insisted the departure date will not change and that she would ‘deliver Brexit on time’.
- LibDems leader Vince Cable responded yesterday to media reports of six Labour MPs poised to quit the party and form a new party by claiming that there are many more. Cable claimed: ‘There is potentially a much bigger number of Labour MPs, not just six, who are deeply unhappy with Corbyn’s leadership and don’t see any future in it and there are some Conservatives as well, it’s not just Labour Party.’
He admitted: ‘As of now, they are basically working with us to stop Brexit and get a people’s vote. There is a group of people working as a team to try and deliver that. ‘I think when the Brexit issue is resolved one way or another then they will reconsider their position in the Labour Party.
‘I can’t predict exactly what will happen, but I think there is a real chance of a significant group breaking away and if that happens we will work with them in some form or
another.’