WATCH: Jeremy Hunt warns Brexit could be lost ‘within weeks’ if MPs fail to back Theresa May's deal
3 min read
Brexit could be lost “in the next couple of weeks” if MPs fail to back Theresa May’s deal, Jeremy Hunt has warned.
The Foreign Secretary said those trying to halt Britain's departure from the EU could achieve two out of the three steps to achieving their goal if the Commons votes down the PM’s agreement this week.
His intervention comes ahead of Tuesday’s meaningful vote, which if voted down will prompt motions later in the week on ruling out a no-deal outcome or on delaying the UK’s exit beyond 29 March.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, he said: “There is a risk and a possibility that we end up losing Brexit in the next couple of weeks and I think that’s something that in their hearts, most MPs know would be a very big mistake.”
He added that Labour’s pledge to keep the option of a second referendum open in the event parliament fails to agree a way forward meant a fresh public vote “could be on the way”.
Mr Hunt continued: “If you want to stop Brexit you only need to do three things: Kill this deal, get an extension and then have a second referendum and within three weeks those people could have two of those three things…”
“We are in very perilous waters and people who want to make sure that we really do deliver this result need to remember that if it fails, people aren’t going to afterwards say ‘it was this person’s fault or this group of peoples fault, they’re going to say 'there was a party which promised to deliver Brexit, we put them into Number 10 and they failed' and the consequences for us as a party would be devastating.”
Elsewhere Mr Hunt said that Britain’s planned exit date could be pushed back with a “technical extension” even if Mrs May’s deal is backed by MPs.
“If we get the deal through this week, we can leave either on the 29 March or very shortly thereafter.
“There might need to be a short period of time for a technical extension to get the necessary legislation through.”
He also ruled out voting to take no-deal Brexit off the table, if the question is put to MPs on Wednesday following Mrs May’s vote falling the day before.
“I’ve been very clear from the outset that I don’t think that we should be taking no-deal off the table. I think it’s very important that if we’re going to get the deal we want, we keep no-deal on the table”.
The frontbencher’s warning comes after former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned that the Tories could have their “Trump moment” if they fail to deliver on the democratic wishes of voters by taking Britain out of the bloc.
“The British people who voted for this... will see a Government, Parliament, walking away from a question that they themselves put to the people."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
