Tory MP Dominic Grieve has said Theresa May’s response to the Brexit crisis facing the UK has left him “ashamed to be a Conservative”.
The former attorney general made an impassioned plea to the government to strike a deal with Labour as he predicted Brexit would see his party “spiral into oblivion”, concluding “the worst part of it all is we will deserve it”.
It comes after EU Council President Donald Tusk said Brussels would only grant a delay to Brexit if MPs backed a withdrawal agreement, with just nine days left before the legal default of a no-deal exit could be triggered.
Grieve, who has been the MP for Beaconsfield for more than 20 years, stunned the Commons during an emergency debate on Wednesday as he said it had left him ashamed.
He picked out the prime minister’s attempt to blame MPs for the looming crisis as “the worst moment” he had experienced in parliament.
“I have never felt more ashamed to be a member of the Conservative Party or to be asked to lend her support,” he said, referring to the PM’s performance at prime minister’s questions.
“She spent most of her time castigating the House for its misconduct. At no stage did she pause to consider whether it was in fact the way she is leading this government which might be contributing to this situation.”
He said there had been a “complete breakdown in collective responsibility”.
“We have ministers coming to the despatch box and saying completely contradictory things,” he said.
Grieve said he and May had a “personal friendship beyond and outside” parliament, before adding: “But I have to say I could have wept, wept to see her reduced to these straits and wept to see the extent to which she was simply zigzagging all over the place, rather than standing up for what the national interest must be.”
He added that further attempts “browbeat” MPs into backing her deal would not work.
“We really are, I’m sorry to say this, at the 11th hour and 59th minute, the government’s credibility is running out,” he said. “Trust in it is running out.
“And unless the prime minister, by some great exertion, [...] stands up and starts doing something different we are going to spiral down into oblivion and the worst part of it all is we will deserve it.”
Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Justine Greening claimed the “fabric of parliament” has been undermined by poor handling of Brexit.
She said: “We are nine days away from Brexit and, as things stand, we have not got an agreed strategy for this government to follow. Instead, we have a government that is continuing to put its head in the sand about a deal that is simply not accepted by this parliament.
“I think there will be many books written about why we ended up in this position, but I think the reality is this situation was clear months ago. It was clear when the Chequers agreement and subsequent White Paper was launched that that strategy would not command consensus in this house and that has proved the case ever since.
“Even if the government manages to get a deal through, it would be a Pyrrhic victory that serves no-one, including themselves. We are having an extension debate today because the government has not been prepared to confront the fact its deal has not been accepted by this house.
“The reality is in doing all of this it has, I think, undermined the procedures of this house which are there to help this democracy and those of us privileged to be part of it, elected to represent our communities, it has actually damaged the fabric of this place in my view.”
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said May should have given a full statement to the Commons about her decision to write to Tusk about the delay.
“It is symptomatic of the way the Prime Minister’s actually approached very many Brexit issues, which is to push parliament as far away as possible from the process,” he said.
While Starmer did not outline how long an extension Labour would back, he said May should allow enough time to swerve a no-deal exit.
“She could, at this stage, act in the national interest and frankly show some leadership and take a responsible approach, which I think would be to seek an extension to prevent no-deal and provide time for parliament to find a majority for a different approach,” he said.
He added: “The Prime Minister still thinks that the failed strategy of the last two years, namely my deal or no-deal, a blinkered approach, no changes, no room for parliament, should just be pursued for another three months.”
Ministers were told to “stop smirking” and “playing poker about no-deal” by former Conservative MP Heidi Allen.
The Independent MP said “clearly that is not going to happen”, saying there can be “no more smirking at the despatch box, no more playing games, no more poker about no-deal”.
She said: “This government is on the edge of bringing this country down.”
The PM must bring “indicative votes” to the House now, she added, and they must not be whipped so that MPs can “have our say and stop this madness now”.
Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, meanwhile, said he thought no Brexit “is more fundamentally damaging to the country” than no-deal, when he was asked by the SNP’s Brendan MacNeil if he would revoke Article 50 if the UK faced crashing out.
“If you take it to its absolute extreme, and I’ve been very clear that I think both outcomes - no Brexit I think is usually damaging democratically and a no-deal is very damaging economically - of the two no Brexit is more fundamentally damaging to the country,” he said.