Brexit: Theresa May 'ready to quit’ to see her deal pass

The beleaguered Prime Minister lost all authority over her party this week, and reports yesterday suggested she could face another raft of resignations from her government.

Three ministers quit on Monday night so they could back Oliver Letwin’s amendment to give MPs “indicative votes” on Brexit alternatives in the Commons today.

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There have been four times in the last 40 years when three ministers have resigned in a 24 hour period, three of those times have been in the last eight months.

The Prime Minister is due to address the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs this evening, and there is speculation that she could be about to name the date of her exit from Number 10.

Former minister Tim Loughton told BBC2’s Politics Live that her resignation had “become inevitable”.

He added: “For somebody who has got a huge sense of public service … it’s a great tragedy that it will end, I fear, in the way it’s going to end.”

Loughton said May’s position had “become untenable”.

“The leadership is not there,” he added.

According to reports in the Guardian, Downing Street aides and Tory whips have even directly asked Brexiteer MPs, including Boris Johnson, if May’s departure would be enough to get them over the line for her deal.

The Government is considering holding the third meaningful vote, or MV3 as it’s known, tomorrow, or even possibly on Friday.

There was a small boost for Number 10 when leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated that he could switch and now back May’s deal.

There was also a hint from Johnson that he too might now be ready to hold his nose and support the Prime Minister.

Speaking in front of a live audience, at a “Boris on Brexit” event for the Telegraph, the former foreign secretary said voting down May’s deal could risk Brexit not happening.

“I’m not there yet” he told the booing crowd, saying he was using the night “as a focus group”.

But, he told the room, it may be better to vote for May’s “pseudo Brexit” and try and “rectify later” with a new, tougher Prime Minister.

Yet even if May does win over Johnson, the DUP, who prop up May’s government and have enormous influence over Tory Brexiteers, made it very clear that in their mind the deal was still “toxic”.

Sammy Wilson from the party said the DUP would rather have a year-long extension to Brexit than back May’s deal.

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If MV3 is held this week, and is defeated again, it will almost certainly lead to Labour or the SNP calling for a vote of no-confidence in the Government, which could, in turn, lead to a snap General Election.

The SNP’s Ian Blackford said he would relish a new poll.

“You’ve really had an outbreak of civil war in the Tory party and, arguably, you’ve had the same thing in the Labour party,” Blackford said in an interview with LBC Radio.

“Neither of these parties can really cope with this. Our politics is broken, I think it’s probably fair to say Britain is broken.

“There’s talk this morning of an election. I’m not sure how either of these parties could cope with an election,” he added.

Blackford said the SNP would be willing to work with Jeremy Corbyn to table a motion of no confidence. “We would do. I would relish an election,” he said.

Meanwhile, MPs are gearing up for a historic day in the Commons, with what could be the first round of indicative votes on Brexit alternatives due this evening.

It’s not yet known what the options are.

The Commons will also vote to formally delay Brexit until either May 22, or April 12.

Four Brexiteer MPs who have taken legal advice, however, have written to the Prime Minister to suggest that her agreeing to extend the Article 50 negotiating process is illegal.

They argue that May is “unlawfully seeking to extend the UK’s membership of the EU” by having agreed to abandon the original exit date.