Tory Brexiteers and Remainers traded bitter recriminations today after Theresa May survived a dramatic no-confidence vote.
As the smoke cleared after the extraordinary coup bid, Iain Duncan Smith confirmed that he was among 117 MPs who voted against the PM.
The former Cabinet minister said the revolt by more than a third of the Parliamentary party, which used his office as a base, had 'sent a message' that Mrs May needs to change tack on Brexit.
Boris Johnson is also thought to have been one of those who went against the premier, although he refused to confirm which way he voted, and David Davis also hinted that he would rebel.
But the pro-EU Conservative wing hit back furiously demanding that the hardliners accept they had lost the ballot - or leave the party altogether.
Iain Duncan Smith (left) confirmed that he was among 117 MPs who voted against the PM. Jacob Rees-Mogg (right) said the result showed Theresa May should quit
Mrs May is heading for Brussels today as she tried to wring out more concessions from the EU over the Brexit deal
Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said the Tories were now 'dancing on the precipice' of a split.
'They never, ever stop. Votes against them, letters going in late - nothing matters to ERG,' he said.
'After the apocalypse, all that will be left will be ants and Tory MPs complaining about Europe and their leader.'
Former minister Nicky Morgan told the BBC: 'I think there's an inevitability that some of these people - the hardest Brexiteers - are going to walk.
'There may be some sort of reconfiguration of parties on the right of the UK political spectrum and that may be something we are going to have to accept in order to get a Brexit deal through the House of Commons.'
As the battle rages at home, Mrs May is heading to Brussels today seeking fresh concessions for her Brexit deal.
After a day of drama in Westminster, she will travel to the EU summit with another seemingly impossible task to get movement on the Irish border backstop.
Speaking in Downing Street after scraping home in the no-confidence ballot last night, Mrs May acknowledged that a 'significant' number of her MPs had voted against her and said: 'I have listened to what they said.'
She pledged to seek 'legal and political assurances' on the Brexit backstop to allay MPs' concerns about her Withdrawal Agreement when she attends a European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday.
And she said she and her administration had a 'renewed mission', saying: 'Following this ballot, we now need to get on with the job of delivering Brexit for the British people and building a better future for this country.'
She said this must involve 'politicians of all sides coming together and acting in the national interest'.
But she had earlier sowed the seeds for her eventual departure by telling Tory MPs at a meeting of the backbench 1922 committee that she would not lead the party into the next general election, expected in 2022.
According to MPs present at the meeting, she also promised to find a 'legally binding solution' to ensuring that the UK does not get permanently trapped in a backstop arrangement to keep the Irish border open after Brexit.
The scale of this task was highlighted by Irish premier Leo Varadkar and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who insisted in a phone call as MPs voted that the UK's Withdrawal Agreement 'cannot be reopened or contradicted'.
DUP leader Arlene Foster, who met Mrs May shortly before the ballot, insisted that 'tinkering around the edges' of the agreement would not be enough to win her party's support for the deal.
Boris Johnson (pictured left) is thought to have been one of those who went against the premier, although he refused to confirm which way he voted. David Davis (right) also hinted that he would rebel
1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady announced the dramatic result of the no-confidence vote at the Commons last night
Mrs Foster, whose 10 MPs prop up the minority Conservative administration, said she told the PM that 'we were not seeking assurances or promises, we wanted fundamental legal text changes'.
Arch-Brexiteer and European Research Group leader Jacob Rees-Mogg led calls for Theresa May to step down after the vote, pointing out that she had lost the confidence of more than a third of her MPs and a majority of her backbenchers.
Mr Duncan Smith this morning called on Theresa May to 'engage' with her hard Brexit critics and 'resolve' their concerns over the backstop by threatening to withhold the UK's £39billion divorce payment to the EU.
'We cannot go on just with the idea that a fiddle here and a fiddle there is what the problem is,' Mr Duncan Smith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
'A compromise is there but it's the backstop which has to be resolved.'
Mr Duncan Smith called on Philip Hammond to 'moderate your language' after the Chancellor suggested that Wednesday's confidence vote was a way to 'flush out the extremists' in the Conservative Party.
The former work and pensions secretary said many Tory MPs felt 'frustration over the idea that Downing Street has failed to listen'. He added: 'I have one simple message for the Chancellor: When you start turning on your own party and making accusations about them, that's the beginning of the end for your party.
'You need to moderate your language and recognise that a party is a coalition and we need to get this thing through the line. I do not want to see the party where it is at the moment.'
Another Brexiteer, David Jones, pointed out that leadership campaigns were already under way.
'I've no doubt that there will have been people in the room there who applauded the Prime Minister but are part of one campaign or another,' he said.
Simon Hart, who founded the Brexit Delivery Group of Tory backbenchers and is supportive of the Prime Minister, said: 'I've had potential leadership candidates approaching me. I've had people I haven't spoken to in nine years since I was first elected in 2010 using this opportunity to sell their own credentials and engage in a private beauty parade.'
Mrs Morgan suggested that a split in the Conservatives may be looming, with hardline Eurosceptics leaving the party.
She told the BBC: 'I think there's an inevitability that some of these people - the hardest Brexiteers - are going to walk.
'There may be some sort of reconfiguration of parties on the right of the UK political spectrum and that may be something we are going to have to accept in order to get a Brexit deal through the House of Commons.'
Nicky Morgan (left) and Alistair Burt (right) have both raised the prospect that the Tory party might be forced to split
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/13/tory-remainers-demand-hardline-eurosceptics-quit-the-party/
Main photo article Tory Brexiteers and Remainers traded bitter recriminations today after Theresa May survived a dramatic no-confidence vote.
As the smoke cleared after the extraordinary coup bid, Iain Duncan Smith confirmed that he was among 117 MPs who voted against the PM.
The former Cabinet minister said the ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/13/08/7370296-6491157-image-m-11_1544690610333.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий