Theresa May to set departure date in last throw of Brexit dice

Theresa May could today set out the date of her departure in a meeting with Tory MPs, as part of a last-ditch effort to win support for her withdrawal deal on Thursday.

Multiple reports suggest the prime minister will announce plans to stand down at the end of May when the UK formally leaves the EU, if her Brexit deal is voted through this week.

The Guardian reports that “intense speculation is circling at Westminster as to whether May will name a departure date in a final attempt to get her Brexit deal approved, amid chatter in Tory circles that government whips are beginning to ask MPs if that would persuade some of the 70 holdouts to change sides”.

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According to The Sun’s Tom Newton Dun, the prime minister is indeed ready to quit if a deal can be hammered out. He says May made the offer at her country retreat, Chequers, on Sunday to former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, “who has now emerged as a key power broker in talks to negotiate how this might work”, says Politico.

If May is planning such a move, “tomorrow's behind-closed-doors gathering with the 1922 Committee could be the time for her to do it”, CNN says.

The prime minister could perversely have been helped in her bid to win over wavering hardliners after parliament voted to take control of the Brexit process with a series of ‘indicative votes’ later today.

“That’s because, generally, the make-up of MPs are more likely to back a softer deal than the one on offer,” says BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

Parliament’s move “seemed to have focused minds”, Reuters says, “with some eurosceptic lawmakers saying they could back her plan before choosing a new leader for the next phase of talks with the EU”.

Arch-Brexiteer and chairman of the European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg has hinted he is finally prepared to back May’s deal, after warning the prime minister would never deliver a no-deal Brexit.

Asked if therefore the choice he and his colleagues faced was between the prime minister’s deal and no Brexit, Rees-Mogg told the Conservative Home podcast: “I have always thought that no deal is better than Mrs May’s deal but Mrs May's deal is better than not leaving at all.”

“There is a sort of hierarchy of choice and if the choice is the one you suggest then inevitably leaving the European Union, even leaving it inadequately and having work to do afterwards, is better than not leaving at all,” he added.

This apparent U-turn prompted “fury from Brexit hardliners”, says The Independent.

Brexit campaigners Leave.EU accused the Tories of choosing to “stab us in the back” rather than respect the result of the Brexit referendum.

The volte face might ultimately be in vain, after the Daily Telegraph reported Downing Street’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) allies “delivered a hammer blow to Theresa May’s chances of getting her deal agreed by MPs”.

Writing in the Telegraph, Sammy Wilson, the party’s Brexit spokesman said a one-year delay would be a “better strategy” than the “prison” of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The paper says “the support of the DUP’s 10 MPs is viewed as crucial to May’s hopes of securing a House of Commons majority for her deal which has already been crushed twice”.