THERESA May has said she is preparing to make a “bold offer” to MPs in a final attempt to get her beleaguered Brexit deal through Parliament and onto the statue book before she leaves office.
The Prime Minister will begin discussions today on a package of measures to be included in the forthcoming Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) aimed at securing cross-party support.
The weekly meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow will then consider plans for a series of “indicative votes” in the Commons to establish which proposals could command a majority in the House.
The move follows the final collapse on Friday of cross-party talks with Labour aimed at finding an agreed way forward which would allow the UK to leave the EU with a deal.
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The WAB – which is needed to ratify the deal with Brussels – is expected to include new measures on protecting workers’ rights, an issue where agreement with Labour was said to have been close.
However, government sources made clear the package would not just be aimed at Labour MPs but would seek to secure the widest possible support across the Commons.
It is expected to include provisions on future customs arrangements with the EU and on Northern Ireland, including the use of technology to avoid the need for border controls with the Republic.
It will not, however, seek to re-open the withdrawal agreement – which included the Northern Ireland backstop – after the EU repeatedly made clear it could not be renegotiated.
Writing in The Sunday Times, May said: “I still believe there is a majority in Parliament to be won for leaving with a deal. When the Withdrawal Agreement Bill comes before MPs, it will represent a new, bold offer to MPs across the House of Commons, with an improved package of measures that I believe can win new support.
“Whatever the outcome of any votes, I will not be simply asking MPs to think again. Instead I will ask them to look at a new and improved deal with fresh pairs of eyes – and to give it their support.”
May has said she will bring the WAB before MPs for its second reading vote in the first week of June. Regardless of how the vote goes, she will then meet the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to agree a timetable to elect her successor as party leader, paving the way for her departure No 10.
Her deal has already been heavily defeated in the Commons three times. A fourth defeat would see a ratcheting up of demands for her to go immediately amid intense frustration in her party at her failure to deliver on the 2016 referendum result.
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