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More talk of a snap election in the Times.
A defence minister has become the first member of Theresa May’s government to break ranks and publicly urge her to delay Brexit if no deal can be reached. As Whitehall stepped up preparations for a possible snap election, Tobias Ellwood argued that extending Article 50 would be preferable to Britain leaving the European Union on March 29 without a deal. Leaving with no agreement would “be an act of self harm with profound economic, security and reputational, consequences for the UK at the very time threats are increasing and diversifying,” he told The Times. If contingency planning for a no-deal became the government’s central mission, “it means we’ve failed to secure any parliamentary consensus and deliberately dismissed seeking additional time by extending Article 50,” he said.
Mr Ellwood spoke as Mrs May and her team scrambled to rescue her Brexit deal and her premiership.
A delegation of Brexit-supporting cabinet ministers told Theresa May not to accept a customs union as a way out of the Brexit deadlock, partly on the basis that adopting the policy might hurt her if a snap election was called. Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling, Liz Truss and Liam Fox told her that to do so would make the Tories indistinguishable from Labour on the issue, potentially losing her votes. Mrs May, who is resistant to an election, is understood to have been receptive to others’ ideas rather than forcing her own view. But a growing number of cabinet ministers believe the present turmoil will inevitably result in the country returning to the polls.
Brandon Lewis, the Tory chairman, has told potential candidates in recent days that Conservative Headquarters is making no additional preparations. However a senior official working for Julian Smith, the chief whip, has contacted departments to ask which bills should be rushed through before the dissolution of parliament in case an election was called. “We were asked what bills we were happy to drop”, said one source. Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, has been holding meetings with other permanent secretaries. One Whitehall source said that Sir Mark had discussed the extension of Article 50, although the government played down the importance of his meetings.