Brexiteer Tory MPs have accused Theresa May of a presenting a “charade” over the deadlocked negotiations with Brussels, as relations with Downing Street reached new lows on Monday.
Four leading Conservative Eurosceptics told BuzzFeed News they believed Number 10 was using the breakdown in talks to stave off a slew of cabinet resignations and keep her Brexit proposals alive until a special EU summit expected in November.
After a meeting on Sunday in Brussels between Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier failed to produce an agreement, the prime minister told MPs on Monday that “two problems remain” — Brussels is so far refusing to agree to UK-wide customs arrangements for the backstop, and the two sides have failed to agree a solution that guarantees the backstop is temporary.
However, May added: “I do not believe the UK and the EU are far apart.”
Ministers including Raab, Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt, and Esther McVey were said to be considering their positions if May accepted a backstop that keeps the UK inside a customs union without a time limit. The Democratic Unionist Party opposes a backstop that places a regulatory or customs border in the Irish sea.
But Tory Brexiteers said the impasse was simply an attempt to avoid a cabinet revolt this week and keep the show on the road through this week’s European Council summit in Brussels until the real crunch moment in November.
By that point, the Brexiteers fear, Downing Street will have wound down the clock long enough to argue that it is late to change course, allowing May to make concessions to EU on the backstop and present MPs with a choice of her deal or no deal.
“The PM can wrap herself in the flag this week, like she did at Salzburg,” said a source close to a cabinet minister. “Number 10 will be able to get through the week even if there is no deal, because it keeps the cabinet intact.”
The source predicted that the UK would ultimately agree a form of words that commits to a temporary backstop with a break clause, but does not meet Brexiteers’ demands for a set time limit. They said that by this point, time would have run out for Brexiteers to put forward an alternative plan.
In the Commons on Monday, May swerved a question from Leave MPs Boris Johnson and Iain Duncan Smith over when the customs union backstop would end and who could decide to end it.
Per EU sources, things are not as chaotic as they seem...Dominic Raab walkout was no surprise to EU chiefs and part of No 10 "choreography" to send a message to home audience that May is a staunch defender of UK.
As pro-Brexit ministers were due to meet over pizza in Leadsom’s office on Monday night to discuss their options, backbench Brexiteers believed they had seen through May’s tactics.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, told BuzzFeed News: “A further summit is probably in Number 10’s interest,” adding, “If this is a charade to divert attention I doubt it will work.”
Eurosceptic MP Bernard Jenkin said: “Of course this is a confected row which will be resolved to overshadow the unacceptable nature of the rest of the deal.”
A former cabinet minister told BuzzFeed News: “Just as she did in December, it is clear that the PM is using this charade to buy time in the hope it will be too late by the time people find out what she has signed up for. Every step along the way she has talked tough, misled colleagues, and then folded. The trouble is no one believes her anymore.”
In a message to colleagues, Steve Baker, the vice chair of the ERG, agreed. “This is almost certainly theatre.” Baker predicted there would be a breakthrough to the impasse that would allow a “synthetic victory” to be “manufactured”.
The statement to his ERG colleagues in full from @SteveBakerHW on @theresa_may’s statement this PM on Brexit impasse
Another ERG MP said anger and distrust with Downing Street among Eurosceptic MPs was such that they expected more letters of no confidence in the PM to be sent.
“We will have reached 48 by the end of the week, I think,” the MP said.