A DOZEN or more Government ministers – including up to six in the Cabinet – may be ready to resign if Theresa May refuses to extend Brexit talks beyond the deadline of March 29, former attorney general Dominic Grieve has claimed.
The pro-EU Tory backbench MP said that resignations on this scale could bring down the Government within the next few weeks.
Grieve told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "My understanding is that many of them have made representations directly to the Prime Minister indicating their concern and telling the Prime Minister that if by the end of February there is no deal that has been got through the Commons, we ought to extend.
"If the Prime Minister refuses to do that, I think they face a very difficult choice, because unless we as a Parliament and as the House of Commons start to work together to take the necessary steps to prevent no-deal happening, no-deal could just occur. It could all be so chaotic, it might just happen by accident.
"My view is that if they feel she is not taking those steps, I think they are going to have to resign."
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Asked how many ministers could resign, Grieve said: "I think we are talking about a dozen or even more. Not entirely in the Cabinet, some are junior ministers."
On the number of Cabinet ministers who could resign, he said: "I'm always hesitant to speak on behalf of colleagues, but I think we are talking of up to half a dozen."
Asked whether this could bring down the Government, Grieve said: "Yes it could, and this isn't a desirable outcome."
Dominic Grieve told Today that the next round of Brexit votes on February 27 would be a "high noon" moment for MPs.
"There is, I think, an overwhelming number of Members of Parliament who believe that a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic and they are looking to the Government and saying to the Prime Minister: 'Look, you don't have a deal you can get through the Commons. We can't crash out, therefore you've got to go and extend Article 50', which I think our EU partners will do for us," he said.
He added: "I think we should be extending Article 50 and probably seeking quite a long extension from the EU."
Repeating his call for a second referendum, Grieve said that "the vast majority of MPs know in their hearts that every form of Brexit we've been offered or might achieve is in fact bad for our country - that's the reason why people can't coalesce around any single form".
Grieve told Today: "The irony of all this is that most of us in the Conservative Party are sufficiently united to want to try to operate a coherent Government. But the truth is we're finding it harder and harder to do.
"It starts to bring into question whether in fact the Government is able to operate in the national interest at all.
"We are facing a great crisis and we are not really looking at all the options for trying to resolve it."
He said a solution to Brexit could not be found by "asking the House of Commons to vote for something which they know, fundamentally, is going to be a terrible mistake for the country's future".
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Responding to a claim from Eurosceptic former Brexit secretary David Davis that the Government was ready to take the UK out of the EU without an agreement, Burt said: "No. We won't. We are not leaving without a deal. If you want to leave, you'd better agree one. In the next fortnight would help."
And the Foreign Office minister later added: "There is a majority in the House to reject no deal. Let's Leave, with the Agreement, and the chance of a new relationship with the EU. Honours both Leavers and those who voted to Remain. Let's all make the compromise."
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