MPs should be asked to vote on how to break the Brexit deadlock if parliament votes down Theresa May’s deal, Business Secretary Greg Clark has said.
The prime minister will use a Commons statement later today to reject growing calls for a second referendum.
It comes as Cabinet tensions on EU withdrawal continue to break into the open.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme this morning, Clark was asked what should happen if MPs vote down the government’s Brexit plan.
“We can’t just have continuing uncertainty and I think Parliament should be invited to say what it would agree with, and that’s something that I think businesses up and down the country would expect elected members to take responsibility, rather than just be critics,” he said.
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd also this morning said “nothing should be off the table” when it came to breaking the Brexit deadlock.
“Let’s think about how we test the will of parliament,” she told Sky News. “We should consider all options.”
May will use an address to the Commons on Monday to say a new national poll would do “irreparable damage” to the integrity of British politics.
“Another vote which would likely leave us no further forward than the last. And another vote which would further divide our country at the very moment we should be working to unite it,” she will say.
The appearance follows May’s de facto deputy, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, and the PM’s chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, both dismissing reports they are planning for a new referendum.
Labour is insisting the government puts its Brexit deal to a vote in the Commons before parliament rises for Christmas on Thursday.
But the party has made it clear it will not table a motion of no confidence in the government until such a vote has been held.
HuffPost UK understands that while Labour hasn’t said anything about indicative ballots, it could be a way for The party’s alternative Brexit plan to “take centre stage”, as Corbyn has called for.