Theresa May faces prospect of fresh Brexit rebellion in the Commons
An MP spearheading a bid to inflict defeat on the PM tells Sky News he is confident the group of backbenchers will succeed.
Friday 23 February 2018 15:19, UK
A senior MP spearheading a bid to inflict another Brexit defeat on Theresa May has told Sky News he believes the group of backbenchers has enough votes to win the day.
Chuka Umunna is one of a number of pro-EU Conservative and Labour backbenchers who have tabled an amendment to the Government's trade bill which would require the UK to form a customs union with the European Union after Brexit.
The Labour MP told Sky News "Parliament is in the driving seat" in the Brexit process and claimed "we reflect where the people are".
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Mr Umunna said he believes "at least" as many as 11 Tory MPs are prepared to vote against their party, the number that rebelled on another key Brexit amendment back in December.
Tory MP Stephen Hammond denied the amendment was a threat to Mrs May, telling Sky News: "This won't threaten the PM, the PM as I've already explained has set out that this is Government policy anyway. So all we're doing is making sure these options remain."
Conservative Anna Soubry, who tabled the amendment along with Mr Umunna, has called on Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party to back it "in the national interest".
The party's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has said Labour now backs a post-exit customs union that would look "pretty much like" the current one.
The shift means the Government could very well be defeated if the amendment comes to a vote given its perilous working majority of 13 votes.
Mr Corbyn is expected to give his backing to a customs union arrangement with the EU in a major Brexit speech on Monday, which would pile further pressure on Mrs May.
Mr Umunna told Sky News he fully expects Mr Corbyn to do so, adding Labour's position on the issue had "evolved" in recent weeks and months.
The amendment will provoke the ire of Brexiteers, who argue maintaining a customs union with the EU would restrict Britain's room for manoeuvre when negotiating free trade deals and is akin to not leaving the EU at all.
Brexit-supporting Conservative MP Michael Fabricant described it as a "total betrayal" of Leave voters.
"It will result in #Brexit in name, but not in reality," he wrote on Twitter.
Speaking to the BBC, Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt rejected the customs union calls and said it was possible to have "frictionless" trade with the continent without one.
The prospect of another Commons battle for the PM comes just hours after a marathon gathering of senior ministers aimed at agreeing a united front on leaving the EU.
The eight-hour session of the Brexit "war Cabinet" at Mrs May's country retreat of Chequers was called to thrash out of a common position for the next phase of negotiations with Brussels.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove described the meeting as "very good", adding: "We agreed on the way forward."
This was echoed by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who said: "We all got behind the Prime Minister and we've agreed the basis for her speech for next week and I'm looking forward to it going ahead."
Mr Hunt - who was not at Chequers - said he had been told it was "positive and constructive".
He added that the PM's top team agreed there will be areas of the economy - such as the automotive sector - where Britain will align itself with European regulations and others where it will diverge.
"But that must always be on a voluntary basis," he told Sky News.
"It won't be the situation that the EU changes their rules and we have to follow suit, it will be on the basis of agreement between two sovereign powers, the UK and the EU, and then we'll have an independent arbitration system where there's any disagreement."
Meanwhile, Downing Street has dismissed reports Mrs May is readying for a u-turn on the rights of EU migrants who come to Britain during the Brexit transition period.
The PM's spokesman said her position that the rights of EU nationals arriving after the date of Brexit in March 2019 would be different from those arriving before that date had not changed.
Mrs May will set out her confirmed strategy for the next phase of Brexit negotiations in a speech next Friday, following on from a meeting of her full Cabinet expected to take place on Tuesday.
Before the Chequers talks had even begun, Mrs May saw the European Commission appear to reject her "three baskets" approach to future UK-EU regulatory cooperation.
The PM had previously suggested Britain could harmonise with existing EU regulations in some industries, align with EU rules but with different methods in others and diverge significantly in certain sectors.