DAVID Mundell has threatened to resign … again. According to the Daily Mail, the Secretary of State for Scotland was among a group of 18 rebel ministers urging the Prime Minister to allow “indicative votes” on alternatives to her Brexit deal.

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Mundell and fellow Cabinet ministers Greg Clark, David Gauke, Amber Rudd and Claire Perry, along with seven junior ministers and three ministerial aides and others, want the government to hand over power to Parliament if May’s deal is rejected.

MPs would then indicate what they would like to see happen next with Brexit. That could include choosing between revoking Article 50, holding a second referendum, backing Theresa May’s deal, backing her deal plus customs union membership and single market access, a free-trade agreement, or a no-deal Brexit.

Both the Labour Party and an influential cross-party group of MPs have tabled amendments a vote on Monday night, that would, if passed, allow this to happen.

But yesterday, perhaps in a bid to try to nip any rebellion in the bud, Brexit Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said the government was now minded to back indicative votes.

In what will have been a relief to Mundell, the Tory minister went on to say he would “be surprised” if those votes weren’t free votes, with ministers and MPs allowed to back what option they wanted, rather than along party lines.

Kwarteng also suggested, but did not confirm, that MPs would have their third meaningful vote on May’s Brexit deal, or MV3, in the coming week. If the Speaker allows it, then it’s expected to happen on Tuesday or Wednesday.

May flew back from Brussels yesterday into a storm in her own party.

The hardline Brexiteer Tories in the European Research Group are unhappy at the delay to Brexit.

Backbencher Steve Double said the Prime Minister was “isolated” and that there were “many people” in the party at Westminster who now wanted her to go.

“I think it is quite clear that she is not leading her party. She is isolated, sadly, from a majority of the parliamentary party now,” he told the Press Association.

“We need to find a way forward and I think that requires new leadership. I know many people feel that next week is a defining moment and I would very much hope that she would reflect on her position.”

The National:

There were reports yesterday that May had told Boris Johnson, above, that she had no plans to stand down, and that she was planning on leading the Tories into any General Election called before 2022.

At a meeting between the two earlier this week, the Prime Minister is said to have told the man most likely to replace her that she was working on plans for when her Brexit deal is backed by MPs, and that she was considering “restructuring” the Department for Exiting the European Union.

Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, reportedly told May on Monday that more and more of her own MPs wanted her to quit.

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Because May survived a vote of no confidence in her leadership in December she cannot, under party rules, be challenged for the top until the end of the year.

Meanwhile, BBC presenter Jim Naughtie has been urged to resign for comparing the hard Brexiteers in the ERG, to France’s National Front.

Naughtie told listeners to Today: “The ERG, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s group, in France would be in the National Front because that’s what they believe, and in Germany they’d be in the AfD.”

The ERG’s Mark Francois said that was “a slur on at least 80” MPs.