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| EU and UK step up plans for no-deal Brexit as Merkel rebuffs May | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The EU is moving into full no-deal mode, after Theresa May’s shock decision to pull Tuesday’s vote on her Brexit deal prompted Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier to warn privately of a sudden escalation of risk. | |
| As she shuttled between EU capitals on a whistlestop diplomatic tour aimed at salvaging her deal, the prime minister also said a hastily-scheduled cabinet meeting on Wednesday would discuss what further steps the government needed to take in the event of a no-deal Brexit. | |
| “We have already stepped up the no-deal preparations. That has been happening in recent days. But cabinet will be discussing what is the sensible thing for government to do, which is to make sure that those contingency arrangement for no-deal preparations are in place,” the prime minister said in Brussels. | |
| The Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, is expected to update the cabinet on no-deal preparations and May said: “We will be looking at what further more we need to do.” | |
| Meanwhile, with May declining to set a date at which her deal will be brought back to parliament for ratification, and her official spokesman saying only that it would be before 21 January, France advised its fellow member states that planning for a cliff-edge Brexit now had to be their priority. | |
| France’s EU affairs minister, Nathalie Loiseau, on a visit to Brussels, suggested her country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, would urge EU leaders at a summit starting on Thursday to take responsibility for their own preparations rather than be sucked into May’s domestic political drama. | |
| Loiseau said: “We are very concerned about the delay in the vote on the withdrawal agreement, because this withdrawal agreement is the best deal possible, it is even the only possible agreement. It has been negotiated for months. | |
| Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator, is understood to have given a stark analysis of the situation in a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker and his fellow commissioners, suggesting that the danger of a complete breakdown had significantly increased. | |
| The European commission is to publish fresh no-deal warnings next week. During a visit to Berlin, May was reportedly told by Angela Merkel that there could be no renegotiation and that any appeals for help should be made in Brussels rather than brought to the capitals. | The European commission is to publish fresh no-deal warnings next week. During a visit to Berlin, May was reportedly told by Angela Merkel that there could be no renegotiation and that any appeals for help should be made in Brussels rather than brought to the capitals. |
| In a sign of the heightened concerns, Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, took the unusual step of suggesting to his parliament that it was still in Downing Street’s gift to prevent a no-deal by revoking article 50 and turning its back on Brexit. | In a sign of the heightened concerns, Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, took the unusual step of suggesting to his parliament that it was still in Downing Street’s gift to prevent a no-deal by revoking article 50 and turning its back on Brexit. |
| “It remains in the hands of the UK to decide that we don’t end up in a no-deal scenario,” Varadkar said. “The option is there to revoke article 50, the option is there to extend article 50, and where there may not be a majority for anything, or at least any deal at the moment in the House of Commons, I do believe there’s a majority that the UK should not be plunged into a no-deal scenario and it is in their hands at any point in time to take the threat of no-deal off the table either by revoking article 50 or, if that’s a step too far, by extending it.” | “It remains in the hands of the UK to decide that we don’t end up in a no-deal scenario,” Varadkar said. “The option is there to revoke article 50, the option is there to extend article 50, and where there may not be a majority for anything, or at least any deal at the moment in the House of Commons, I do believe there’s a majority that the UK should not be plunged into a no-deal scenario and it is in their hands at any point in time to take the threat of no-deal off the table either by revoking article 50 or, if that’s a step too far, by extending it.” |
| May will fly to Dublin after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, in an attempt to win Varadkar’s support for fresh reassurances on the backstop. | |
| Brexit-backing cabinet ministers, including Penny Mordaunt and Andrea Leadsom, are pressing for a legally-binding commitment – perhaps as a formal addendum to the withdrawal agreement. | |
| Cabinet sources said the prime minister had warned colleagues on Monday’s cabinet conference call, when she discussed postponing the vote, that reopening the withdrawal agreement would be risky, not least because Varadkar could insist the Northern Ireland-only backstop be restored to the text. | |
| Downing Street hailed the removal of the Northern Ireland-only version of the backstop, which May said risked splitting the United Kingdom, as one of its key negotiating successes. | |
| As May toured EU capitals, there was fevered speculation back in Westminster that more MPs had written no-confidence letters to the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to bring them over the threshold of the 48 needed for trigger a leadership ballot. | |
| Most of the most prominent May sceptics were wary of making any predictions, bruised by the last time that the letters failed to materialise. | |
| One Brexiter MP said he knew colleagues who had spent the day lobbying others to finally send in their letters but many others played down the prospect of the threshold being reached. “A few extras have gone in I think. Who knows how close we are? I can’t understand why there’s not 100 personally,” one said. | |
| Another said: “Do I think we’re yet tonight? I’m not sure; but I think we will be tomorrow.” He added: “Many of us are spending our evenings lobbying other colleagues.” | |
| Peterborough voices: Brexit fog dims festive lights | Peterborough voices: Brexit fog dims festive lights |
| May held talks with the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, in The Hague on Tuesday morning before going on to Berlin for talks with Merkel. | May held talks with the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, in The Hague on Tuesday morning before going on to Berlin for talks with Merkel. |
| The German chancellor reported to the parliamentary faction of the CDU/CSU alliance of which she is a member that she had excluded the possibility with May of reopening Brexit negotiations. “We said that there will be no further opening of the exit deal,” Merkel said. | The German chancellor reported to the parliamentary faction of the CDU/CSU alliance of which she is a member that she had excluded the possibility with May of reopening Brexit negotiations. “We said that there will be no further opening of the exit deal,” Merkel said. |
| The prime minister later conducted talks with Juncker, the European commission president, and Donald Tusk, the European council president. | |
| Following his meeting with May, Tusk tweeted that the pair had a “long and frank” discussion. “Clear that EU27 wants to help”, he wrote. “The question is how.” | Following his meeting with May, Tusk tweeted that the pair had a “long and frank” discussion. “Clear that EU27 wants to help”, he wrote. “The question is how.” |
| Earlier in the day, Juncker had told the European parliament that there was “no room whatsoever for renegotiation”, but that the EU could offer “clarifications and interpretations” to help the prime minister secure MPs’ support. | Earlier in the day, Juncker had told the European parliament that there was “no room whatsoever for renegotiation”, but that the EU could offer “clarifications and interpretations” to help the prime minister secure MPs’ support. |
| Many Labour MPs including the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, have argued that there is a parliamentary majority to stop a no-deal exit, calling it a “false choice” between May’s deal and no deal. However, Commons officials believe it would be very difficult in practice. | |
| MPs opposed to no deal had believed one legal route could be to amend the primarily legislation needed for an semi-orderly no-deal exit, such as an immigration bill, to allow parliament to insist on an extension to article 50. | |
| Yet experts have come to believe that those amendments may not be within the scope of the bills and that the amendments could not impose conditions on whether no deal happens or not. | |
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