A Conservative minister has indicated will resign from the government if Theresa May does not promise to give MPs another chance to rule out a no-deal Brexit.
Richard Harrington, a business minister, said on Tuesday morning he was prepared to allow the prime minister to keep a no-deal Brexit on the table for “another two weeks”.
“Many of us have been to see the prime minister and told her the absolute catastrophe and disaster for jobs and the economy that no-deal would be,” he told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme.
“If I had to break a government Whip then presumably the government would say ‘we don’t want you to be a business minister’.”
May faces a crucial day in the Commons on Tuesday that could carve the shape of Brexit, with fewer than 60 days remaining until the UK is due to leave the EU.
Amid an ongoing revolt among backbenchers and her DUP allies, the PM has swung behind a motion that would allow her to go back to Brussels and seek changes to the Irish border backstop.
She will whip MPs to support the amendment tabled by 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, which states that parliament would be willing to support the Withdrawal Agreement reached with the EU if “alternative arrangements” were found to avoid a hard border.
The dramatic move is far from guaranteed to deliver a majority for the plan after it failed to win the support of the influential European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative Eurosceptics, who have not ruled out voting against it.
There is also the small matter of the amendment being called by Commons Speaker John Bercow on Tuesday morning, although his hand may be swayed by the number of MPs backing it already.
Tory grandee Sir Graham said he hoped House of Commons backing would give May “enormous firepower” when she returns to Brussels to seek concessions on her Brexit deal.
Meanwhile, late on Monday evening it emerged a new Brexit plan had been put forward which is reportedly backed by members of both the Remain and Leave camps of the Conservative party.
The plan – called the The Malthouse Compromise after Kit Malthouse, the MP who brought the parties together – would lead to Britain leaving the EU “on time and with a functioning government”, former Brexit minster Steve Baker said.
Said to be drawn up by ex-cabinet minister Nicky Morgan and supported by others, the plan reportedly “provides for exit from the EU on time with a new backstop, which would be acceptable indefinitely, but which incentivises us all to reach a new future relationship”.
It would extend the transition period – the period where the UK would continue to follow EU rules and pay into its budget – from the end of 2020 and into December 2021 which would “allow both parties to prepare properly for WTO terms, but also provide a period in which the parties could obviate this outcome by negotiating a mutually beneficial future relationship”.
Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier’s deputy Sabine Weyand warned there was a “high risk” of the UK crashing out by accident, as it was “quite a challenge” to see how a majority could be constructed at Westminster.
European Commission vice-president Jyrki Kateinen said there was “no reason to give any concessions” to the UK and there was “not much room for manoeuvre” on the backstop.