With three days to go until the vote on Theresa May’s deal, this had been the point in the process that No 10 hoped the Whips would be closing in on the swing rebels. Instead the number of rebels is growing with every day.
This evening Will Quince has resigned as a PPS – urging the Prime Minister to go back to the EU and renegotiate the detail so it becomes something MPs can support. Now Quince is no household name but he is also not an ardent Brexiteer or an ardent Remainer. The fact that he has resigned shows how MPs sense a sinking ship and have no plans to be attached to a doomed deal which has little chance of passing. It used to be the case that a job in government was enough to entice loyalty from ambitious MPs.
Quince is not the only resignation to expect in the coming days. A number of PPSs are considering resigning on Monday ahead of the vote. Some are Brexiteers – but others are just MPs fed up and worried about constituents. Even the PPSs who are loyal and want to stay in post see their main concern right now as working out a way to explain in their Commons speech why they are backing a bad deal. Meanwhile some ministers are considering just walking into the wrong lobby on Tuesday and seeing what discipline is placed on them.
This is all why – as James writes in the Sun – Cabinet ministers are urging May to postpone the vote. Given that this would involve a vote of its own, it’s easier said than done. As I say in today’s Telegraph, if the deal is voted down as expected then the chances of be UK leaving on March 29 fall significantly. But many MPs are willing to risk that because they resent the deal so much. May is facing defeat on Tuesday and before she even gets there she is on course to lose more members of her government.
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