Theresa May is being warned by her team that she cannot sack ministers who vote this week to delay Brexit without causing a further rupture within her party.
Close allies of the prime minister have concluded that so many government members are planning to back an amendment that could delay Brexit that firing them all is not a realistic option. Instead, she is being urged to either head off the row by promising a binding vote on delaying Brexit next month, or give way and allow her ministers permission to vote for the measure on Wednesday.
It comes after three Tory MPs resigned from the party last week, partly in protest at May’s handling of Brexit, while a trio of cabinet ministers took the highly unusual step of publicly signalling they could vote to delay withdrawal from the EU.
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In an article for the Observer, Letwin states that a vote for his plan would open the door to parliament taking control of the Brexit process. “If we don’t act now, the UK will sleepwalk out of the EU in just over 30 days with no deal whatsoever,” he writes. “Many of us on the Conservative benches have already voted for the prime minister’s deal once. We are more than prepared to do so again next week and in coming weeks. But we have watched with increasing dismay as the government has shuffled, bit by bit, towards a cliff edge.
“The prospect of falling by mistake into a no-deal Brexit, simply because we have failed to create an opportunity for a cross-party consensus to emerge, would be a tragic and historic mistake.”
However, there are also huge dangers for No 10 in allowing ministers to back the move. One cabinet minister said such a decision would “look like the government failing to take responsibility for delivering Brexit on time”, and cause a revolt among Tory Brexiters.
