“Vote for Theresa May’s deal, or you will end up with a soft Brexit.” Those weren’t quite the words that Philip Hammond, the chancellor, used in his interview on the Today programme this morning, but undoubtedly that was his message.
May has promised MPs a new vote by Tuesday on her deal. If it gets defeated again, there will be a vote on Wednesday on a no-deal Brexit and, if that option gets rejected, there will be a vote on Thursday on extending article 50. Hammond would not say how the government would ask its MPs to vote on the no-deal motion, assuming May’s deal falls again, but no one expects the government to whips its MPs to vote in favour and Hammond said he had a “high degree of confidence” that the Commons would reject no deal.
So what would happen then? Nick Robinson asked Hammond if he would be willing to accept the idea of the UK staying in a customs union with the EU for good (Labour’s policy) as an alternative. Hammond did not reject the idea, or explicitly endorse it, but he strongly hinted that this was what might happen if Tory Brexiters continued to reject May’s deal. He told Robinson:
What I would say is this: you are not raising an issue that isn’t widely known and understood, that the Labour party has been talking for a long time about the idea of a customs union grafted onto the PM’s deal.
Those of my colleagues who feel very strongly against that proposal need to think very, very hard about the implications of voting against the prime minister’s deal next Tuesday, because we will then be in unknown territory where a consensus will have to be forged across the House of Commons, and that will inevitably mean compromises being made.
The way for my colleagues to avoid that is to vote for the prime minister’s deal on Tuesday and get it done.
The fact that Hammond is making the argument in these terms is probably a measure of how desperate the government is getting ahead of Tuesday’s vote, which it is widely expected to lose. I will be doing a lot more on this as the day goes on.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, gives a speech in Glasgow on “Defending Democracy in the Cyber Age”.
10.10am: Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, takes questions in the Commons.
After 10.30am: Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, announces next week’s Commons business to MPs.
1.35pm: Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, speaks at the Enders media conference.
As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, but I expect to be focusing mostly on Brexit. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another when I wrap up, at around 5pm.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
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