Theresa May is facing the prospect of a Cabinet walkout after three senior ministers signalled they are ready to help force a delay to Brexit to stop a ‘disastrous’ No Deal.

Amber Rudd, David Gauke and Greg Clark today make clear they are prepared to defy the Prime Minister unless there is a Parliamentary breakthrough on her deal next week.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the trio publicly serve notice that if hardline Tory Brexiteers in the European Research Group scupper a deal they will back other MPs to try to force Mrs May to extend Article 50 and delay Britain’s exit from the EU.

Amber Rudd (pictured), David Gauke and Greg Clark today make clear they are prepared to defy the Prime Minister unless there is a Parliamentary breakthrough on her deal next week

But the trio (Greg Clark is pictured left and David Gauke is right) make it clear they will not shrink from flouting her authority if her deal is blocked again next week – adding that this will mean there is no time to stop a ‘disastrous No Deal’ exit

In their joint article, the Cabinet ministers warn a No Deal departure would wreck the economy, put the defence of the realm in jeopardy and risk the break-up of the UK. They say it remains their hope that Parliament agrees a deal ‘in the next few days’.

But they add: ‘If there is no breakthrough in the coming week, the balance of opinion in Parliament is clear – that it would be better to seek to extend Article 50 and delay our date of departure rather than crash out of the European Union on March 29.

‘It is time that many of our Conservative parliamentary colleagues in the ERG recognised that Parliament will stop a disastrous No Deal Brexit on March 29. If that happens, they will have no one to blame but themselves for delaying Brexit.’

The move comes at the end of an extraordinary week which saw three Tory Remainer MPs quit the party to join eight ex-Labour MPs in a breakaway Independent Group.

Unless Parliament votes through a Brexit deal before Wednesday, MPs are likely to be asked to vote this week on a motion that would effectively take No Deal off the table and force the Prime Minister to seek a Brexit delay.

Sarah Wollaston, Anna Soubry and Heidi Allen held a press conference (pictured from left) to explain their historic defection out of the Tories and into the new Independent Group today

Change of scenery: Independent MPs (front L-R) Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen and Anna Soubry pose with former Labour Party members of The Independent Group of MPs, Joan Ryan (front row R), (middle row L-R) Angela Smith, Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey (top row L-R) Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes

Mrs May believes this would destroy her leverage in Brussels. However, it is understood the Cabinet rebels have indicated privately that they are prepared to resign if necessary to carry out their threat.

They could be joined by up to 20 junior ministers and 100 Tory MPs who, with Labour support, would be certain to defeat Mrs May. On another dramatic day in Westminster:

A hardliner in the European Research Group (ERG) warned up to a dozen MPs would cause ‘carnage’ and ‘effectively end the Government’ if Brexit is delayed;

One report suggested Cabinet ministers believe Mrs May should step down after local elections in May to allow a new leader to conduct the next round of Brexit negotiations;

EU officials claimed British negotiators had given up on securing either a time limit or unilateral exit clause from the Withdrawal Agreement;

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he was ‘more worried than before’ about the talks and said there was a ‘high risk’ of an accidental No Deal;

Labour’s crisis intensified as Jeremy Corbyn was told ‘others will follow’ after a ninth Labour MP, former minister Ian Austin, quit the party;

In their article for the Mail, Work and Pensions Secretary Miss Rudd, Justice Secretary Mr Gauke and Business Secretary Mr Clark are careful to praise Mrs May’s ‘extraordinary determination and resilience’.

But they make it clear they will not shrink from flouting her authority if her deal is blocked again next week – adding that this will mean there is no time to stop a ‘disastrous No Deal’ exit.

The ministers accuse MPs in Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg’s hardline ERG of brushing aside the consequences of a No Deal exit.

The ministers accuse MPs in Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg’s hardline ERG of brushing aside the consequences of a No Deal exit

In addition to hitting jobs, trade and the economy, it would inflame historic border tensions between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, they argue – and ultimately lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom.

The ministers deny they are issuing an ultimatum to Mrs May. ‘The ultimatum is to the ERG,’ said a source close to one. ‘If they don’t see sense and back the PM, Brexit won’t happen next month – on their heads be it. The aim is to make it easier for the PM to face down the ERG.’

Today’s intervention comes ahead of what is expected to be another critical week on Brexit. On Tuesday Mrs May will return from talks with the EU over the weekend to update MPs on progress.

If no agreement has been found over changes to the Northern Ireland back-stop, MPs will have another chance on Wednesday to propose and vote on amendments demanding Mrs May change course.

‘If we don’t get a deal next week we MUST delay Brexit’: MPs Amber Rudd, Greg Clark and David Gauke appeal for Tory unity as party is engulfed by bitter in-fighting

By David Gauke, Amber Rudd and Greg Clark for the Daily Mail

Leaving the European Union has been a protracted and complex process. Disentangling 46 years of membership has not been – and was never going to be – a simple task.

But, as members of her Cabinet, we have seen for ourselves the extraordinary determination and resilience the Prime Minister has demonstrated in seeking to implement the result of the 2016 referendum.

In the next few days, it is to be hoped that we can achieve a breakthrough in our negotiations with the EU and a new deal can be presented to Parliament. After months of uncertainty, it is time that MPs recognised the need to get a deal, accepted that this is the only deal on offer, and supported it.

Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is seen arriving to attend a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street earlier this month

David Gauke (left), Amber Rudd (right) and Greg Clark write in today's Daily Mail: 'After months of uncertainty, it is time that MPs recognised the need to get a deal, accepted that this is the only deal on offer, and supported it'

Once the deal is passed, the benefits will be felt nationally. Optimism will surge, relief will be palpable, we will have pulled back from the damaging precipice of No Deal, and we can put the divisions behind us. But too many of our parliamentary colleagues appear complacent about the consequences of leaving the EU without a deal.

Our economy will be damaged severely both in the short and long term. Costs will increase, businesses that rely on just-in-time supply chains will be severely disrupted, and investment will be discouraged. Obviously, trade with the EU will become harder but so will trade with important non-EU economies, such as Japan and South Korea, with whom we currently trade with the benefit of free trade agreements available for EU members.

Our national security will be weakened. For example, co-operation with our EU allies depends upon the free flow of data between our authorities. Such co-operation will not be possible unless we reach agreement as to how this will work when we are outside the EU. No such agreement is in place.

And the integrity of the United Kingdom would be put at risk. A No Deal Brexit will mean that those whose lives straddle the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border will become much more complicated. It is already clear that moderate Nationalists who, up until now, have been reconciled to living in the United Kingdom, will increasingly see the attractions of a united Ireland. The calls for a border poll would grow stronger and, with it, the prospect of the end of the United Kingdom.

David Gauke, Amber Rudd and Greg Clark: 'As members of her Cabinet, we have seen for ourselves the extraordinary determination and resilience the Prime Minister has demonstrated in seeking to implement the result of the 2016 referendum'

In such circumstances, it does not take much of a leap in imagination to see how the Scottish separatists would seek to seize the chance to break up Great Britain, too.

Far from Brexit resulting in a newly independent United Kingdom stepping boldly into the wider world, crashing out on March 29 would see us poorer, less secure and potentially splitting up.

It would be truly remarkable if this was as a consequence of Conservative MPs voting down the deal. We must be the party that promotes business, protects our security and preserves the Union. None of this would be achieved by pursuing a No Deal Brexit.

The Government’s policy is to leave the European Union on March 29 with a deal that protects our economic and security interests. That date is less than five weeks away and time is running out.

If we cannot achieve a parliamentary breakthrough in the next few days, the country will face a choice. We could crash out on March 29 or we could try to leave with a deal at a later date. Beyond the next few days, there simply will not be time to agree a deal and complete all the necessary legislation before March 29.

Our hope is that Parliament recognises that we should leave the EU on March 29 with a deal. However, if there is no breakthrough in the coming week, the balance of opinion in Parliament is clear – that it would be better to seek to extend Article 50 and delay our date of departure rather than crash out of the European Union on March 29.

It is time that many of our Conservative parliamentary colleagues in the ERG recognised that Parliament will stop a disastrous No Deal Brexit on March 29. If that happens, they will have no one to blame but themselves for delaying Brexit.

Stop playing games over No Deal, Boris and Co warned

By Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail

The Tory Party was last night engulfed by bitter Brexit in-fighting over the threat of a No Deal departure.

The Prime Minister will travel to an EU summit in Egypt tomorrow as she tries to secure last-ditch concessions from Brussels on her deal.

But ahead of a critical week, the party is at war over whether to take control of the negotiations out of her hands to prevent No Deal.

The Prime Minister (pictured leaving Downing Street yesterday) will travel to an EU summit in Egypt tomorrow as she tries to secure last-ditch concessions from Brussels on her deal

Dozens of backbenchers yesterday warned Mrs May they were now prepared to rebel in a crunch vote, expected on Wednesday, on a motion to extend Article 50 and avoid No Deal.

And in today’s Mail three Cabinet ministers – Amber Rudd, David Gauke and Greg Clark – suggest they could defy the PM unless there is a breakthrough in Parliament in the next few days.

Hardline Eurosceptics have reacted furiously and are said to be threatening to ‘effectively end the Government’ if any move to delay Brexit succeeds and we don’t leave the EU on March 29.

Last night, it was reported that some Cabinet ministers had privately warned that Mrs May must stand down after the local elections in May to allow a new leader to deliver the next stage of Brexit negotiations.

Is May giving up on backstop changes? Britain is privately giving up on securing changes to the Irish backstop that Theresa May has publicly promised are deliverable, EU officials claimed last night. The Prime Minister is insisting an end date or unilateral exit clause to the backstop are possible solutions for breaking the Brexit deadlock. But Brussels insists a unilateral exit ‘is not workable’ and one senior EU source claimed the ‘reality is sinking in’ with British negotiators that the ‘ambition has to be turned down a bit’. They even questioned whether Mrs May ever believed she could win such concessions, suggesting she is touting them to keep hardline Brexiteers in line. Changes would only amount to further assurances that the backstop will not be indefinite, they claimed. It came as EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned there was now a high risk of an ‘accidental’ No Deal and he was ‘more worried than before’ about Britain leaving without a deal. The latest claims about the limited extent of the concessions that Britain is trying to secure are likely to infuriate Brexiteers, who want the backstop changed or replaced entirely. It is designed to prevent a hard border emerging in Ireland in the event no future trade deal is reached, but Brexiteers fear it could trap Britain in a customs union with the bloc forever. Efforts to break the deadlock are now focused on drawing up new wording that would allow Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to offer legal advice to MPs that would demonstrate the backstop does not have to last indefinitely. The focus could be on plans for how alternative arrangements – including technological ones for cross-border trade – could be reached that would allow the backstop to cease if triggered. Brussels is opposed to any text in the withdrawal treaty being changed, but is said to be more relaxed about re-opening it in the form of adding to it. The EU source said: ‘I think the reality is sinking in that the ambition has to be turned down a bit to something which is an interpretation. ‘They could present it as a process that could be interpreted as a way out of the backstop... it can’t be a unilateral escape.’ Advertisement

The Guardian claimed that senior figures in government had suggested they wanted the PM to leave shortly after the first phase of the Brexit talks – or risk being defeated in a confidence vote at the end of the year.

Tomorrow, Mrs May will travel to Sharm El Sheikh to discuss Brexit on the sidelines of an EU summit with Arab leaders, and will sit down with EU Council President Donald Tusk.

But one Whitehall source said there had been no ‘white smoke moment’ and it was ‘unlikely’ anything would emerge at the weekend.

With no sign of a resolution, Downing Street officials are braced for a brutal row next week when MPs will vote on plans to force Mrs May to delay leaving the EU. An amendment, proposed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, would attempt to seize control of the parliamentary agenda and pass a law requiring Mrs May to ask the EU for an extension if no deal is done by the middle of next month. Members of the Brexit Delivery Group have written to her to demand a free vote on the amendment.

Tory MP Andrew Percy, who backed Brexit, said dozens of Tories would be prepared to rebel to stop No Deal and demanded hardliners such as Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg start ‘living in the real world’.

He accused arch-Brexiteers in the European Research Group of ‘playing games’ and warned they risked Brexit not happening at all.

‘Some of my colleagues have got to recognise that the game they have thus far been playing with regards to this whole process is not going to end well for them and could potentially end with the delaying of – perhaps even no Brexit – which some of us have spent a lot of our parliamentary and political careers campaigning for,’ he told the BBC’s Today programme. ‘Everybody knows there are about 500 MPs in Parliament who don’t want a No Deal Brexit and only about 100 at best who probably do. I know some of my fellow Brexiteers are in total denial about the parliamentary arithmetic but it is time for people to start living in the real world.’

One ERG figure warned there would be ‘carnage’ if Mrs May moved the Brexit date. ‘If she said she’d extend Article 50, there’d be 20-plus MPs who would just take their bat and ball home: No domestic legislation, no Brexit legislation, they just wouldn’t be showing up any more,’ they said. ‘It would effectively end the government… Mrs May has been absolutely firm for months and months we leave on the March 29. If she went back on that, there would be carnage.’

Eurosceptics in the Cabinet urged Mrs May not to give in to the threats and whip Tory MPs against the Cooper amendment.

One said: ‘We have got to try and vote Cooper down. We shouldn’t just roll over and accept it. People don’t seem to realise that by voting for it they would be reducing our chances of getting a deal.

‘If you ask for an extension to Article 50 it will be horrendous. Europe never does a deal until the last minute.’ Allies of Mrs May said the PM was trying to find a way to ‘persuade everyone to get down off the ledge’ and preserve enough unity to get a deal over the line.

‘The minute you try to extend Article 50, the ERG will go fully mental,’ a source said.

There are also fears Cabinet resignations over No Deal could lead to more MPs quitting.

‘We’re moving towards that’: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell signals that Labour will back a second referendum

By Daniel Martin for the Daily Mail

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has signalled that Labour will back a second referendum as part of a desperate bid to stop more MPs defecting.

He said the party had kept the option on the table and ‘we’re moving towards that’. The seven Labour MPs who quit on Monday all blamed the party’s approach to Brexit and lack of support for a People’s Vote.

Another Labour MP, Ian Austin, resigned yesterday – although he supports Brexit and has so far declined to join the Independent Group. Labour’s position, thrashed out at conference last year, keeps open the option of a second referendum if Theresa May can’t get a deal through Parliament and there’s no general election.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell (pictured) has signalled that Labour will back a second referendum as part of a desperate bid to stop more MPs defecting

Jeremy Corbyn, a Eurosceptic, is believed to be opposed to a second referendum. But yesterday Mr McDonnell told the London Evening Standard: ‘On the People’s Vote, we’ve kept it on the table and we’re moving towards that.’

He said Labour was ‘moving into implementation stages around our conference decision, around the People’s Vote’.

Labour MPs Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson have devised a plan to support the PM’s Brexit deal on the condition it is put to a confirmatory public vote. The Commons could be asked to vote on the Kyle-Wilson amendment next week.

Mr McDonnell said that any referendum would have remaining in the European Union as the alternative to the deal.

‘If we were going on a People’s Vote based on a deal that has gone through Parliament in some form, if that got voted down then you’d have status quo, and that would be Remain,’ he said.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured), a Eurosceptic, is believed to be opposed to a second referendum

The Shadow Chancellor said that if it was an option ‘I’d campaign for Remain and I’d vote for Remain’. A spokesman for the People’s Vote campaign said: ‘It looks like Labour will test whether its Brexit plan has the support of Parliament next week.

‘If they back compromise proposals to put any final Brexit deal to the people, it will help unite their party, as well as avoid the catastrophe for their constituents of a No Deal departure from the EU.’

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn was setting out his Brexit plans in Madrid at the Party of European Socialists meeting. He said: ‘The damaging deadlock on Brexit must be broken and following my discussions with EU leaders and officials, I am in no doubt that Labour’s alternative plan is credible.’