LABOUR and the Tories are to restart Brexit negotiations today, with Number 10 desperate to get Theresa May’s deal through the House of Commons.
Reports over the weekend suggested the Prime Minister had accepted that the only way she had a chance of winning the support of a majority of MPs was if she caved into Jeremy Corbyn’s demands for a customs union.
Today is therefore a crucial day for the two negotiating teams, with details of an agreement possibly emerging tomorrow.
May is due to appear in front of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs on Wednesday where she’ll try to calm their calls for her to name the date of her resignation and outline plans to hold a second reading of the withdrawal bill in the days before the elections on May 23.
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But in a scathing attack, Gavin Williamson, the sacked former defence secretary, described her “politically naive” talks with Labour as a “betrayal”.
The hapless MP, who was given his jotters over the Huawei leak, said the negotiations would have “fatal” consequences for the Tories.
He said doing a deal with Labour on Brexit “sounds so simple and so reasonable, but it is destined to fail”.
“Even if Labour do a deal, break bread with the Prime Minister and announce that both parties have reached an agreement, it can only ever end in tears,” he said. “The Labour Party does not exist to help the Conservative Party.
“Jeremy Corbyn will do all he can to divide, disrupt and frustrate the Conservatives in the hope of bringing down the Government.
“His goal, and he has made no secret of it, is to bring about a general election.”
Williamson said the Prime Minister seemed oblivious to the fact many Tories believe she is “negotiating with the enemy”.
“There is a clue in their title: Her Majesty’s Official Opposition,” he said. “Their priority is to derail the Government.
“Even if we get to a point where Jeremy Corbyn agrees a deal with the Prime Minister, when it comes to detailed scrutiny of the votes, Labour will revert to form.
“Even if it passes the first few votes, it will fail later.”
The former minister, who also served as a chief whip, said May didn’t have the votes to get a deal that was “far removed” from expectations.
He said May could have support from “less than half the Conservative MPs”.
Williamson said: “The Prime Minister needs to recognise that futile efforts to pull off this Labour deal are damaging us all.
“It is a grave mistake for any Prime Minister to fail to recognise when a plan will not work and it is fatal to press on regardless.
“We need to accept that these talks with Labour are fruitless and that not only will they not deliver the Brexit that people voted for, they are a betrayal of the direct instructions the people gave us in 2016 and 2017.”
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However, Education Secretary, Damian Hinds defended the Prime Minister. “What’s the alternative?” he asked during an appearance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme yesterday.
“We have to find a way through and that means we have to have a majority ...
“I think she’s done a remarkable job and no other person in her position would be able to change the parliamentary reality.”
Hinds said he believed Labour were negotiating “in good faith”.
Yet Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth was less optimistic.
Talks were “not getting very far”, he said.
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