It’s you or Brexit, ministers tell Theresa May

Theresa May is battling to save her premiership as ministers warned she may have to fall on her sword to save Brexit.

British Prime Minister Theresa May could be visited by senior ministers this week telling her it’s time to go to save Brexit. Picture: Getty Images

Theresa May is battling to save her premiership as cabinet ministers warned she may have to fall on her sword to save Brexit.

In a final throw of the dice, Chancellor Philip Hammond will offer Tory MPs a £20 billion ($36.9bn) Brexit “bribe” this week to finally “end auster­ity” if they support the Prime Minister’s deal.

He will use his spring statement on the public finances on Wednesday to pledge to pump money into the police, schools and even tax cuts in a spending review­ this northern autumn, but only if parliament votes for a deal.

This weekend, Mrs May’s team was warned by senior Brexiteers that she would get her deal passed only if she offered to resign by June so a new prime minister could lead the second phase of negotia­tions. In a sign that senior colleagues are abandoning her, one cabinet minister said: “I don’t believe there is a single one of us who thinks it’s a good idea for her to stay beyond June.”

Another, previously loyal, added: “She’s run out of road.”

Senior figures revealed that:

● Mrs May’s aides are considering persuading her to offer to resign as soon as the deal is passed in order to get MPs back on board;

● Senior cabinet ministers have held private talks about whether they will have to visit Mrs May to tell her to go as early as this week;

● A ministerial aide predicted that if Labour tabled another vote of no confidence in the government, “Tories will vote for it” in order to “bring her down”.

Allies of the four main contend­ers to succeed her — Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid, Jeremy­ Hunt and Dominic Raab — said they were “ready to go” and “things could move quickly”.

Aides said the talks on the withdrawal agreement would “go down to the wire” and the Prime Minister’s plane was on standby ready to fly her to Brussels to seal an improved deal.

But with the changes likely to fall short of what Eurosceptics are demanding, Mrs May’s aides believe she is in danger of losing tomorro­w’s meaningful vote by more than 230, the majority against her in January. Even “optimists” predict a majority of 150. “It’s bloody bad,” said one. “It will be in the same sort of ballpark as January unless something changes. We are at Defcon 2.”

Mrs May invited senior Brexiteers to her Chequers retreat at the weekend but failed to convince them. To avoid a second humiliat­ion, her team is drawing up plans to offer MPs a motion outlining the deal it would like rather than the one Brussels has approved, to show the European Commission what it would take to obtain parliament’s approval.

The team may be forced to scrap votes planned for Wednesday where MPs are supposed to be offered the chance to block a no-deal Brexit or back an extension to the March 29 deadline so Mrs May can try for final con­ces­­si­ons at a March 21 EU summit.

In an effort to force the govern­ment to adopt a softer Brexit, a cross-party group of MPs led by Nick Boles has hired three QCs to draw up a new version of the Brexit political declaration, committing Britain to a Norway-style relationship with the EU.

If Mrs May loses on Tuesday, the group will table an amendment designed to force the government to adopt it. The Chancellor will make clear that “serious” money is available and a three-year spending review will start in the summer and report in the autumn if the deal passes.

Mr Hammond has a £15bn Brexit contingency fund. Coupled with an upturn in the tax take, that gives him “up to” £20bn to spend, which will be divided between the public services, target­ed tax cuts, long-term investment and keeping Britain’s debt burden on a downward trajectory.

“We will be in a position to spend quite a lot of money this autumn,” a source said.

“Austerity will be well and truly over. But there’s no way we can do that until Brexit is resolved­. We absolutel­y must have a deal or all bets are off.”

In the event of no deal, Mr Hammond would scrap the three-year spending review and replace it with a one-year emergency funding plan to keep governme­nt departments afloat. He is likely to favour the police, schools and the justice system, which have suffered cuts while new money has been pumped into the National Health Service and social care.

Brexit talks went late into the night on Friday, with officials updating­ Mrs May in the early hours.

The Sunday Times