Philip Hammond, the chancellor of the exchequer, has warned Conservative Eurosceptics that if they vote down Tuesday’s meaningful vote they could end up with a softer form of Brexit.
Mr Hammond, speaking on the Today programme on BBC’s Radio 4 on Thursday, warned MPs to “think very very hard” about the implications of voting against the leadership next week.
Julian Smith, the Tory chief whip, told the cabinet on Tuesday that there was a very real prospect — if next Tuesday’s vote fails — that the House of Commons will seize control of the Brexit process and force Britain into a softer arrangement.
That speculation increased on Wednesday after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held talks in his Commons office with leading Tory and Labour MPs from the “Common Market 2.0” group pushing for a Norway-style deal that would mean Britain staying in the single market. The plan — which would enrage many Brexiters — would see the UK joining the European Free Trade Association (Efta) at the end of the two-year transition period, while also joining a customs union with the EU.
Mr Hammond said the Commons could take “various different routes” to try to break the current political impasse.
“You’re not raising an issue that isn’t widely known and understood. The Labour party has been talking for some time about a customs union grafted on to the prime minister’s deal,” the chancellor said.
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“Those of my colleagues who feel very strongly about that proposal need to think very very hard about the implications of voting against the prime minister’s deal next Tuesday. We will be in unknown territory where a consensus has to be found across the House of Commons and compromises would have to be made.”
Fears are growing within Downing Street that the British government will fail to secure compromises from Brussels in the next few days that will satisfy hardline Tory Eurosceptic MPs. That could see another major defeat for the Theresa May administration on Tuesday, following on from January’s setback when her first “meaningful vote” on the withdrawal agreement suffered the biggest Commons defeat in history.
Mr Hammond admitted the situation was a “challenge” but said negotiations were continuing.
“I would have liked to have had it done earlier but these things tend to go to the wire,” he said. “I have great confidence in the Brexit secretary and the attorney-general in the work they are doing.”
MPs will also have a chance to vote on Wednesday and Thursday respectively on blocking no-deal Brexit and delaying Britain’s departure by several months.
Mr Hammond said he did not yet know the whipping arrangements for the no-deal vote, but said: “We always said it would be a very bad outcome for the UK to leave the EU without a deal but there isn’t a motion yet.”
