Theresa May promised to bring her Brexit deal back to Parliament at the start of June even as talks with the opposition Labour Party have not yielded an agreement. Negotiations continue but her main hope seems to be that a drubbing in the European elections will force members of Parliament to swing behind her.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox appealed to MPs to back Theresa May’s deal and allow Parliament to get on with tackling issues that matter more to voters away from the Westminster bubble.
“There’ll be an opportunity for MPs to decide, after the local elections, after the European elections, whether they want to vote for Brexit or not,” Fox said after a speech in central London. “MPs will have to look and see whether they want to continue down a path that inexorably takes us to revocation of Article 50 or leaving without a deal and decide whether thats best for the country, either democratically or economically,” he said.
Fox, who campaigned to Leave the EU, said he wants the Brexit process done and dusted before a general election so politicians can talks to voters about issues. Fox, a former party chairman, said he will be voting Conservative because if MEPs take their seats they will have to consider wider issues than Brexit.
“Every vote that weakens the Conservative Party strengthens Mr Corbyn, which is the worst future for our country,” Fox said.
Penny Mordaunt, the newly-installed Defence Secretary, launched a thinly-veiled Conservative leadership bid by harking back to what some Tories view as the party’s 1980s glory days under Margaret Thatcher.
“Witnessing Thatcher’s resolve in 1982 during the Falklands War, I knew Britain stood up to bullies,” pro-Brexit Mordaunt said at an event in central London. It was one of four references to the former prime minister in her speech.
If Mordaunt manages to get through the Tory leadership competition among members of Parliament she, and one other finalist, would face a vote of the 1,24,000 rank-and-file Tories across the country -- many of whom idolize the former premier.