By Ben Kerrigan-
Theresa May has held desperate meetings with leading Tory Remainers top save her party from further division, following rumours that further defections are on their way.
Justine Greening and Phillip Lee have net with the prime minister to discuss their grievances over the handling of Brexit talks. Ms May also met cabinet ministers David Gauke and Greg Clark. The British prime minister is under increasing pressure to resolve a party crisis to which she has no easy answers that unites the party on the vexing topic of Brexit.
MPs will earn a fresh vote Wednesday if May fails to deliver an agreeable solution to many unhappy mps that rule out a no-deal Brexit
The government said on Thursday that talks would continue “urgently” at a technical level after “productive” meetings with Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Theresa May has written to the three Tory defectors – Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston – to reject what she describes as the “picture they paint of the party”, saying its record on the NHS, employment and diversity proved it was “moderate” and “open-hearted”.
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The prime minister offered to “continue to work together on issues” where they agree – but told the three she rejected “the parallel you draw with the way Jeremy Corbyn and the hard left have warped a once-proud Labour Party”. Ms May said local party branches had been warned to ensure new members support the party’s “values and objectives”. She is in a desperate position. The quandary surrounding Brexit talks is one very few, if any, has been able to crack. There is an answer, but it has so far eluded almost everyone.
When raised for deep discussion and debate among this publication’s sharp minds, it almost always hits a dead end, even with the diversity of minds that make up the team. A topic readily on the news, there are still not many professionals who fully understand every aspect of it, even where full explanation of the critical issues are available. Ministers in Parliament would be expected to come up with clever solutions to a problem virtually taking over the news on almost a daily basis, but all we end up with are divisions, resignations, and allegations.
Many University lecturers have shied away from providing a smart solution, with only a handful prepared to outline the potential consequences of the present situation. A potentially new party may be formed as a result of this Brexit crisis tearing apart British politics before our eyes.
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Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has expressed sadness at the loss of members of her party. She told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “I am very sad that the Labour members of this new independent organisation have gone.
“Up until the last minute, people were talking to them, trying to persuade them not to take the step they have taken.”
Abbott expressed hope that the trio would continue to work with Labour on issues like homelessness, the benefit system, the NHS and “most of all fighting this Tory Brexit”.
Abbott does not want Corbyn to overlook the voice of Labour members, who are overwhelmingly pro-remain. Her internal intervention comes in the wake of credible speculation that close to a dozen shadow ministers are contemplating resignation over a vote against a second referendum amendment
Labour have in the meantime complained to the Information Commissioner over alleged attempts to access personal data held by the party.
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