With Theresa May now seriously down to the wire with her Brexit deal, the Sunday politics shows were unsurprisingly dominated by one thing – what will happen in a series of key votes in parliament this week.
If the prime minister’s deal is once again voted down by MPs during the second meaningful vote on Tuesday, by the end of the week a no-deal Brexit could be taken off the table altogether and Article 50 could be extended.
But with just 19 days left until the UK is set to leave the EU, politicians appearing on the Sunday politics shows fell into three clear categories – loyal Cabinet ministers bluntly refusing to acknowledge the likelihood that May’s deal will be rejected on Tuesday; Labour frontbenchers disagreeing over how long a Brexit extension should be and former Brexit secretaries predicting the fall of democracy.
Labour’s Divided Frontbench
Let’s start with Labour’s Keir Starmer and John McDonnell. Shadow chancellor McDonnell – who appeared to be conducting his video interview from a dungeon – told BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that MPs must shut down May’s deal on Tuesday – and the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.
How long should an extension to Article 50 last? “As long as necessary,” he said.
But McDonnell went on to argue that Labour’s deal could be agreed “in a matter of weeks”.
“The European Union has looked positively on that and in all the discussions they have seen that as the foundation for a proper discussion, and to be frank, that is what the Prime Minister should have done two years ago.”
Shadow Brexit secretary Kier Starmer had a pretty different take on how long the UK should delay Brexit. Like Labour’s foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, he said that while extending Article 50 is “not a policy of choice”, a delay of three months “is probably doable”.
But both men were vague about how the party’s promise for a second referendum would be dealt with in the coming days.
While McDonnell said Labour would keep the option of a People’s Vote open “to break the logjam” on Brexit, Starmer appeared to suggest that an amendment for a second vote might not even be put down by the Labour leadership.
Refusing to say exactly when an amendment could be put down, he told Sky’s Ridge on Sunday: “Pretty well everything we have won or achieved in the past two years has been where a backbencher has put down an amendment and sufficient MPs have got behind it and that’s what needs to happen.”
May’s Loyalist Brigade
The issue of how long a Brexit extension should be, and how a second referendum would work, were not at the forefront of everyone’s minds in quite the same way though.
Representing team May ahead of a week of showdowns in Westminster, Jeremy Hunt and health secretary Matt Hancock stubbornly refused to accept suggestions that the PM’s deal was effectively dead in the water already.
Both men refused to be pinned down on how they would vote in a ballot about whether no-deal should remain an option for leaving the EU, with Hancock arguing that talking about potential ballots could increase the likelihood of May’s deal failing.
“It’s not inevitable” that the prime minister will lose the meaningful vote, he told Ridge.
Meanwhile, foreign secretary Hunt warned Tory MPs they risked killing Brexit off altogether if they failed to back May’s deal, saying any alternative agreed by the Commons was likely to be “less appealing” to Brexiteers.
“People worry about us being trapped in the customs union by the backdoor but we could end up in the customs union by the front door if we get this wrong,” he told Marr, appearing to reference Labour’s Brexit plans, which involves remaining in the EU customs union.
“We have an opportunity now to leave on March 29 or shortly thereafter and it is very important we grasp that opportunity because there is wind in the sails of people trying to stop Brexit.”
Hunt added: “If you want to stop Brexit you only need to do three things – kill this deal, get an extension and then have a second referendum. Within three weeks people could have two of those three things and quite possibly the third one could be on the way through the Labour Party. We’re in very perilous waters.”
Stark Warnings From Past Brexit Secretaries
Then came the former Brexit secretaries – bringing with them stark warnings about what it would mean for democracy if the government failed to deliver Brexit amid the possibility of MPs extending Article 50.
Speaking to Ridge, Dominic Raab said the Tory Party “should keep our promise” on leaving the EU on March 29, saying its manifesto promise that a no-deal is better than a bad deal still stood.
Democracy would be damaged if the government failed to deliver on the referendum result, he said.
“It’s [a no-deal Brexit] certainly not my preferred outcome, but I think we would be better able to manage the risks of it and that would free us to grasp the opportunities.”
Raab added later: “What we can’t do is be locked into that whole range of rules – from customs rules to economic rules to tax policy to social regulation and have no control of it. That wouldn’t be faithful to the referendum.”
But David Davis went one step further. The former Cabinet minister said Britain would be faced with its own “Trump moment” if parliament failed to deliver Brexit.
Any move to extend Article 50 would be a “democratic disaster” that would leave the Conservative Party “massively damaged”, he said in an interview with Marr.
“It would absolutely undermine belief in democracy in this country and certainly belief in the establishment political parties.”
“Britain will get its Trump moment,” he continued. “The British people who voted for this – and a large number of Remainers who didn’t vote for it but still think it should be carried through because they believe in democracy – will see a government, a parliament, walking away from a question that they themselves put to the people.”