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Brexit: Not too late for real change to PM's deal - Johnson | Brexit: Not too late for real change to PM's deal - Johnson |
(about 1 hour later) | |
It would be "absurd" to hold another vote on the PM's Brexit deal before attempting further talks with the EU, Boris Johnson has claimed. | |
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the leading Brexiteer said it was "not too late" to get changes to the deal, with EU leaders due to meet on Thursday. | |
But security minister Ben Wallace said Mr Johnson and other opponents of the deal were "ignoring the facts". | |
The PM's plan is expected to be voted on for a third time in the coming days. | The PM's plan is expected to be voted on for a third time in the coming days. |
But the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the situation remained highly unpredictable. | |
She said it was "eminently feasible" the PM would delay a vote until after the EU summit at the end of this week - where European leaders will discuss a UK request to extend the process and to delay Brexit and for how long. | |
What's the current state of play? | |
Last week, MPs rejected Theresa May's deal for a second time - this time by 149 votes - and then backed plans to rule out leaving the EU without a deal. | |
They also voted in favour of an extension to the process - either until 30 June, if the deal is supported before 20 March; or a longer one that could include taking part in European elections if MPs reject her plan again. | |
All 27 EU member states would have to agree to an extension. | |
The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler said there were growing divisions about the length of any delay or what conditions should be attached. | |
Are Tory MPs changing their minds? | |
The possibility of Brexit being delayed or overturned in another referendum has seen some MPs reluctantly back Mrs May's deal. | The possibility of Brexit being delayed or overturned in another referendum has seen some MPs reluctantly back Mrs May's deal. |
A group of 15 Tory MPs from Leave-backing constituencies, including former Brexit Secretary David Davis, wrote a letter urging colleagues to back the deal to ensure Brexit goes ahead. | A group of 15 Tory MPs from Leave-backing constituencies, including former Brexit Secretary David Davis, wrote a letter urging colleagues to back the deal to ensure Brexit goes ahead. |
But so far the number of Tories publicly switching positions falls far short of the 75 MPs Mrs May needs to switch sides. | But so far the number of Tories publicly switching positions falls far short of the 75 MPs Mrs May needs to switch sides. |
Mr Johnson, writing in his weekly Daily Telegraph column, said that further changes were needed to the Irish backstop in Mrs May's withdrawal agreement to break the impasse in Parliament. | |
He said the backstop arrangement left the UK vulnerable to "an indefinite means of blackmail" by the EU. | |
"If we agree this deal - and unless we have a radical change in our approach to the negotiations - we face an even greater humiliation in the second phase," he said. | |
EU leaders have said they will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement. | |
Former cabinet minister John Redwood said he was also not shifting position, pointing out that legally the UK was still due to leave the EU on 29 March. | |
"If Parliament wants us not to leave on 29 March, it has to change the law," he told Radio 4's Today programme. | |
But Mr Wallace, who backed Boris Johnson for the leadership in 2016, said he "strongly urged" him to back the deal and "not to ignore the facts placed before him". | |
"I know Boris is passionate about leaving the EU and if he is passionate, he will recognise that voting for this deal is the way to deliver Brexit," he said. | |
What about the DUP and Labour? | |
Speaking on Sunday, Chancellor Philip Hammond said the deal would only return to the Commons if it had support from the 10 MPs from the Democratic Unionist Party. | |
Negotiations with the DUP, whose MPs prop up the Tory government, are expected to continue on Monday, although Downing Street said a formal meeting to try and get them on board was not scheduled. | |
DUP MLA Jim Wells told Today the party still had a "huge difficulty" with the existing backstop arrangements - designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland but which opponents say will separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. | |
He said: "We could find ourselves locked in there forever in effect - and once you get in, you can never get out." | |
Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will have a series of meetings with other Westminster leaders and some influential backbenchers in an effort to find a cross-party compromise. |