“Conservative MPs have to tell the whips this morning how they will vote” – BBC

That’s news to me. More fake news?
In case Mrs May is in any doubt, I will be voting against the Withdrawal Agreement!

73 Comments

  1. Bryan Harris
    December 9, 2018

    Doesn’t seem any point in that suggestion – Why have a count before the vote… or is it a case of finding individual MP’s that might be bribed or blackmailed?

    1. Hope
      December 9, 2018

      What I cannot get my head around is why anyone other than EU fanatics would sign for this. Even then it is,so,nad you would have to be bordering on the stupid to agree. Therefore it can only be a strategy the deal is so bad MPs vote,to remain on current terms or make the public vote again to remain as the EU has done one many occasions before.

      May is an insult to all those brace men who lost their lives in the last world war, so are the current cabinet. All of whom should be hounded from office. I hope Cashs investigation will include them and also recommend legal action against all. Immunity for ministers changed or put aside for the absolute deceit, treason and surrender of our great nation.

      1. Bryan Harris
        December 9, 2018

        If this was a strategy to enforce a no-deal then all might be forgiven, But I fear Hope, that your suggestion will be closer

  2. Alan Jutson
    December 9, 2018

    Thank you for your clear views

  3. eeyore
    December 9, 2018

    Par for the course at the Backing Brussels Campaign. Or should that be the Bashing Britain Conspiracy?

  4. Lee Jackson
    December 9, 2018

    Good for you.
    I wish you had beaten John Major in the leadership contest before Maastricht was imposed on us and we wouldnā€™t be in this mess now.
    As a Thatcher Tory the Conservative party Iā€™ve voted for all my life bears little resemblance now to what it was when she was in charge.
    As a fervent leaver since Maastricht Iā€™ll never forgive the Conservative party if we donā€™t get the clean leave that was voted for in the referendum.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      December 9, 2018

      Lee. Hear, hear to that!

  5. acorn
    December 9, 2018

    I think you are a lost cause as far as the Whips are concerned. I am considering putting a small wager on Mrs May to win. What do you think?

    As Martin Sambu has opined. “In a country as extremely polarised as the Brexit referendum showed the UK to be, a real compromise will necessarily displease virtually everyone. But precisely because of polarisation, only a compromise unloved by all can conceivably be made to stick, unlike any policy that satisfies one side at the cost of alienating the other.”

    Reply Good way to lose your money – if the unamended motion is put on Tuesday it will be defeated by a big margin

    1. ian wragg
      December 9, 2018

      But there was only one side that won the referendum or are we into proportional politics.
      The WA is nothing more than a surrender document similar to the treaty of Versailles.
      We are not a defeated nation although some of the lily livered MPs and civil servants think we are.

    2. libertarian
      December 9, 2018

      acorn

      Yeh go on put your house on it

    3. Mark B
      December 9, 2018

      And if you win, we all lose.

    4. Lifelogic
      December 9, 2018

      Indeed but if it did actually go through the Conservative party are dead in the water, deservedly so, perhaps never to rise again.

    5. Lifelogic
      December 9, 2018

      Any Tory MP who votes for it is totally unfit to be a Tory MP.

    6. Oldwulf
      December 9, 2018

      I’m not sure I understand why a compromise is “deemed necessary”. We are in a democracy. There is generally a winner and a loser. That is the way it works. Leave won and Remain lost. Would a compromise have been “deemed necessary” if Leave had lost. Somehow I don’t think so.

    7. John C.
      December 9, 2018

      Strange idea of Sambu- we must only accept a compromise that everyone hates, so that the other side cannot think it won. Doesn’t seem to happen in elections. It’s a depressing idea. Since you never have unanimity on any question ever, you must arrange some policy hateful to everyone. Depressing, well to be honest, crackers.

  6. Lifelogic
    December 9, 2018

    What is amazing is that perhaps as many as 200 Tory MP are still actually prepared to vote for it even including some ā€œleaversā€! It shows the sort of people we have as Tory MPs and why we get such absurdities as PMs and bills like the Climate Change Act passed with only a handful against.

    Simon Heffer today. ā€œWill Mrs May go down as our worst ever PM?
    The incumbent rivals historyā€™s biggest stinkers, and faces an extremely humiliating exit as wellā€

    Richly deserved ignominy, but the country does not deserve Corbyn, he really must avoided and still can be with some real leadership and vision.

    1. Turboterrier.
      December 9, 2018

      @ Life logic

      ā€œWill Mrs May go down as our worst ever PM?

      Will? She already has in a lot of peoples eyes.

      1. John C.
        December 9, 2018

        First, will Mrs May ever go down??

    2. mancunius
      December 9, 2018

      May is certainly up there with Lord North, Spenser Perceval, Anthony Eden, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She is the one who has most obstinately defied and circumvented the vote of the majority of the people, and certainly vies with Eden and North as having most humiliated the country. North had more time to do so, of course, during the American Civil War. But even he didn’t negotiate actively to sell the country to a foreign power behind the backs of the people…

      1. mancunius
        December 9, 2018

        American War of Independence, naturally – apologies.

        (Though I suppose my freudian slip is explained by the fact that, in a sense, at that time it was virtually a civil war, between people of the same stock…)

  7. BrendanK
    December 9, 2018

    So what now JR we have reached the end of the road. May’s withdrawal plan will be defeated Tuesday.
    There is no way parliament will let this go to crash out WTO rules so that leaves Norway or something like it or to remain where we are. The Eu is not going to open things up again..that boat has sailed..despite what Raab or other ERG types might think

    1. Denis Cooper
      December 9, 2018

      If the EU “is not going to open things up again” then it seems unlikely that the EU will be prepared to open up the EEA Agreement so that the UK could transfer from the EU group to the EFTA group, and that is even if the four existing EFTA countries were all prepared to open up their Convention which also seems unlikely, especially to admit a fugitive from the EU which still wanted to carry on having its import tariffs controlled by the EU, when Article 3 of the EFTA Convention says that there can be no customs duties on imports and exports among the EFTA members …

    2. a-tracy
      December 9, 2018

      Norway?!

      We are a Country with nearly 67 million people inhabiting these small Islands and you think a deal like Norwayā€™s with just 5.5 million people is all we could achieve? Why?

      Europa – The EU’s trade in goods deficit with Norway has fallen from EUR 52 billion in 2008 to EUR 27 billion in 2017. 81 % of EU exports of goods to Norway are manufactured goods while over half of EU imports of goods from Norway are energy products.

      https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/08/why-the-uk-trade-deficit-with-the-eu-is-woeful-and-widening

      ā€˜UK imports from the EU were Ā£341 billion (53% of all UK imports). … The UK had an overall trade deficit of -Ā£67 billion with the EU in 2017. A surplus of Ā£28 billion on trade in services was outweighed by a deficit of -Ā£95 billion on trade in goods. The UK had a trade surplus of Ā£41 billion with non-EU countries.ā€™

      Itā€™s impossible to get any deal if the people negotiating donā€™t believe in it. They seem to be working to make this fail. No-one on the official Leave side was saying there would be no immigration, in fact Boris was saying the opposite just there was to be no automatic rights to free services and benefits inc housing benefits so if you lost your job and couldnā€™t replace it within 3 months you couldnā€™t get housed and claim, you needed to go home to claim in your originating Country, to stop UK born people continually getting bounced down the housing snakes and ladder list because they have family whose couches and box rooms they could sleep in.

      1. Grant
        December 9, 2018

        Boris suggested building a road bridge across the channel..his latest is a bridge between NI and Scotland..we can’t take anything he says really seriously..tiger in the tank and all that stuff about duck business

        1. mancunius
          December 9, 2018

          Grant= ‘Brendan’, how many more times are you going to try posting the same old guff under a different ID?
          It fools nobody.

        2. hefner
          December 9, 2018

          I don’t understand how some people can be enamoured with Boris. He might think of himself as some new Churchillian figure, but check what Churchill had achieved in South Africa as a journalist relative to the pink sausage and straight banana myths (and other such ridiculous stories peddled in the DT) that Boris had achieved as a journo. Then his few months as FO Minister have not been particularly successful. So, tell me, what quality/ies do you see in Boris that make you think he would not make a calamitous PM?

          1. L Jones
            December 9, 2018

            He believes in the UK.
            That good enough for a start?

          2. hefner
            December 10, 2018

            “He believes in the UK”: Amen to that, but could this type of semi-religious creed be what is needed? Given the very small size of Boris’ previous achievements, might such an immoderate faith in the guy be sensible?

          3. libertarian
            December 10, 2018

            hefner

            This banana myth you mean?

            Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2257/94. Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2257/94 of 16 September 1994 Quality standards for bananas

            Careful on the sausage one you’ll have Margaret Howard after you, she thinks sausages have only become edible since the EU directive on sausage content

          4. TRP
            December 11, 2018

            These quality standards have nothing to do with banana shape. Bananas in the UK, despite these ā€œregulationsā€, can be more or less curved, more or less fair traded, and can originate from various non-EU countries.
            So was not Boris making a lot of fuss, as a joke to please his readership?

        3. a-tracy
          December 9, 2018

          China can build huge bridges why canā€™t we? Look up Macau….Zhuhai and HK.

          Just where is all our money going? We have super low unemployment, weā€™re told millions of new fully contributing migrants paying national insurance, tax, council tax, VAT – around 500,000 pa we were told, hardly using any social services, being young, fit and healthy they rarely use our NHS so all these services should be booming.

          Even if you argue some of the jobs are only part-time it is better that previously 100% unemployed people are now contributing half to their keep?

          Boris is looking sharp, heā€™s got his detractors going into hyper drive. Whether he can take the Trump beating that will ensue is probably something he has been wrestling with.

    3. Jagman84
      December 9, 2018

      “There is no way parliament will let this go to crash out”. In other words, trading with the EU, on similar terms to those we have with most other non-EU nations. Incidentally, at a healthy surplus. Plus, the opportunity to turn some of the non-EU arrangements into bespoke trade deals. Some crashing out, eh?

    4. mancunius
      December 9, 2018

      Not working at all, ‘Brendan’, is it? You carry on repeating the same nonsense under constantly new IDs, and still nobody takes it seriously.
      Bit of a waste of your time and energy, really. šŸ˜‰

      1. Grant
        December 9, 2018

        Yeah mancunius..i have my own project going here..usually it’s the stuff that doesn’t get printed is of more interest to mešŸ˜‚

        1. mancunius
          December 9, 2018

          ‘doesn’t get printed’? The Scotland-NI bridge?
          Don’t make us laugh.

          At least you have now admitted that you are deviously posting under constantly different identities.

  8. Lifelogic
    December 9, 2018

    Anyone voting for the ageement is surely totally unsuitable to be a Conservative MP. Just not bright enough or perhaps they are deliberately acting against the interests of the UK.. What other possible explanations are there?

    Then again I would also say that about the absurdly damaging and pointless climate change act. Here almost all of them voted for the economically damaging anti-scientific religion & insanity.

    1. Alan Jutson
      December 9, 2018

      Lifelogic

      “anybody voting for the agreement……”

      Not just any Conservative MP Lifelogic, any MP, given its content.

    2. Stred
      December 9, 2018

      Today, on ITV we had Mr Quarteng saying that we could negotiate a good deal with the EU and had a get out that we could extend the ‘transition. Then we had Mr Barclay on BBC saying that we would not be paying after the transition. Marr read out the conditions about having to go to a committee of EU experts in order to leave, but this didn’t concern him. He could also have pointed out that the legal advice was that we would continue to pay, but right through the Boris interview, in which he threw in the untrue remarks about Iranian prisoners which are on video record, the untrue claims about payment were left unsaid. Are these MPs daft or dishonest. I would go for the first if forced.

    3. John C.
      December 9, 2018

      Any policy that encourages colder weather is madness: crops and OAPs alike enjoy some warmth. Anyway, a few windmills don’t make any difference, so not to bother.

    4. L Jones
      December 9, 2018

      Another explanation for voting for it – self interest with an eye to their career prospects. For example, our MP.

  9. Sir Joe Soap
    December 9, 2018

    Perhaps they realise that in your case it would be a wasted call. You might wish to comment on why your colleague Barclay finds it necessary to write a Telegraph article containing a bucketful of twaddle though.

  10. Maybot
    December 9, 2018

    Wait until today is done and they have all the footage to show that Leave is a violent mob.

    I think the UKIP march is a big mistake.

    If there is violence will it have been UKIP fighting among themselves ?

    Will it ever be acknowledged that there was no disturbance at the recent People’s Vote march because we Leavers believe in democracy and did not turn up to disrupt it ?

    1. libertarian
      December 9, 2018

      Maybot

      UKIP and their idiot supporters are the major cause of all the problems with leaving the EU. The remain side take every utterance from Farage, Banks, Batten and the rest as the gospel according to the Bexiteers when in fact they represent a couple of dozen people . Remainers are totally focused on UKIP rather than 17.4 million others

      1. Maybot
        December 9, 2018

        Libertarian – Do you imagine for one moment that without UKIP we would have had a referendum ?

        Sure. UKIP doesn’t have much finesse about it. No political nouse or spin but surely that’s appealing ?

        1. John Hatfield
          December 9, 2018

          I can’t help thinking that UKIP has more finesse than either the Labour or the Conservative parties, oh or the LIbDems. Mustn’t forget them.

        2. libertarian
          December 10, 2018

          Maybot

          UKIP are entirely responsible for getting the referendum. They were a giant protest vote at the EU elections which shocked the Tories into action. UKIP never have been and never will be a credible UK party .

          Nope not appealing in any way most of the stuff they come out with is pure guff . They are a throw back

          I want to see a new , modern party dedicated to creating true democracy and being fit for the 21st century

    2. Adam
      December 9, 2018

      Marches achieves little beyond burning calories & worn shoes. Violence is daft & worse. If a peaceful march enables lower cost footwear via Brexit, those who attend might gain something while losing weight.

  11. Steve Pitts
    December 9, 2018

    Jacob Rees-Mogg apparently believes the result will not be won or lost by a large margin but by a small one. I wonder why he thinks that, he must have a reason for that. I would expect a second vote and Mrs May to survive if that is right. I also see Labour think they will be able to form a minority government next week but I think that is not likely.

    Reply No sign a small defeat if the unamended motion is put. Jacob is not always right about MPs voting plans!

    1. Hope
      December 9, 2018

      JRM was saying it to prevent compliance and MPs abstaining etc. He wants a big margin and make every vote count. It was wis of him to say what he did. No wiggle room for cowards.

  12. Denis Cooper
    December 9, 2018

    That’s if you actually get the chance to vote, JR, if she does not decide to cancel the vote and shoot off to Brussels to plead for some minor tinkering to make her unsavoury ‘deal’ seem a little more palatable to MPs … David Cameron misjudged the public reaction to his ‘deal’ and lost the referendum, but Theresa May has gone far beyond that level of misjudgment and has come back with something that even many of her usually loyal MPs cannot accept.

    This would be my advice to her, which I would expect her to ignore even if she was aware of it: do what you should have done a year ago, and make a formal public declaration that in view of the extreme and intransigent position adopted by the Irish government the UK would make no changes at all on its side of the border for the foreseeable future, so goods would be allowed to flow in from the Republic with no more hindrance than now, and in a spirit of helpfulness and good neighbourliness the UK Parliament would pass a new law to strictly control the goods carried across into the Republic in order to avoid the need for checks on their side, and now rather than seek any new special trade treaty the UK would like to discuss the technical and practical arrangements for continuing our two-way trade with the EU on the terms of the WTO treaties, which have already been negotiated and agreed and ratified and are already in force for the EU and all its member states.

    1. ian wragg
      December 9, 2018

      The fact that only this morning she said the vote would go ahead means it will most likely be cancelled. She always does the opposite of what she says.
      Liar, liar, pants on fire.

      1. Sir Joe Soap
        December 9, 2018

        Indeed! Delay delay delay. If only that ballot paper had named a date for leaving.

  13. Richard1
    December 9, 2018

    Mrs May is going around saying itā€™s her deal, or either no deal or no Brexit. This must give a large majority of MPs reason to vote it down as most would prefer no deal or no Brexit to mrs mays deal – as I would.

    1. L Jones
      December 9, 2018

      But what’s to prevent Brexit (as per Article 50) in the absence of a trade deal with the EU? Why is it being said it is either May’s deal or no Brexit?
      Shaking off the EU shackles never was all about trade.

      Am I missing something?

  14. Richard1
    December 9, 2018

    Interesting that Continuity Remain scare stories about huge delays at the ports have been contradicted by the head of the ports authority trade association. Who reminds us also that Dover, though important, accounts for 6% of UK seaborne trade.

  15. Prigger
    December 9, 2018

    Mr Kwasi Kwarteng MP has just been on ā€œSophy Ridge on Sundayā€ Sky TV
    He says that he is sure the vote will be won by Mrs May on Tuesday.
    He says the Betting Odds indicate people are for Mrs May’s deal.
    I am not betting man. But I do know how Betting Odds are formulated.
    He does not.
    Similarly, Christine Lagard’s team at the IMF used Betting Odds , according to one speech she made, in forming world-wide economic policy.
    The ignorance of the powers that be.
    It is not the number of people who bet, exactly. But the amounts.
    They can cut and paste this into their ā€œAdvanced Politics and Economicsā€ book.

    ā€œI should feel so arrogant if I were to hear what people say about me behind my backā€~~Oscar Wilde
    JR should be in charge of British Government in the UK. Totally.

  16. Alan Joyce
    December 9, 2018

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    I am concerned that the debate has been dominated by the Irish border question to the exclusion of everything else – important though it is.

    I would not wish to see the EU grant the Prime Minister a tweak here or a change of wording there to the backstop and for everybody to think that it was now all ok and the withdrawal agreement and political declaration could be voted through by mp’s.

    There is the Ā£39bn+++, the future trade agreement, security co-operation, ECJ interference, Gibraltar, fishing rights to name a few of the unresolved contentious issues.

    Mrs. May’s agreement is so one-sided in favour of the EU that it and she needs to be scrapped and we start all over again if necessary.

  17. William Long
    December 9, 2018

    I see this is also reported as fact the Sunday Telegraph. I wonder how much else we read and hear is nonsense?

  18. Denis Cooper
    December 9, 2018

    It’s strange that how people casually – arrogantly? – assume that the four EFTA countries would be perfectly happy to oblige us not only by providing a kind of temporary halfway house or staging post out of the EU, but also allowing us to derogate from one of the most fundamental principles of their organisation – that there can be no customs duties on the goods traded between them.

    https://www.itv.com/news/2018-12-08/what-is-the-norway-plus-brexit-option-that-mps-are-talking-about/

    “What is the Norway-plus Brexit option MPs are talking about?”

    “… the ā€œplusā€ bit of Norway-plus would involve a customs union with the EU, which, combined with the single market elements, would avoid a hard border with Ireland.”

    Unfortunately for the EFTA/EEA enthusiasts:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/07/norwegian-politicians-reject-uks-norway-plus-brexit-plan

    ā€œIt is not an option for the UK to stay inside the customs union, as the UK proposes to solve the Northern Ireland border issue, if you are part of the Efta platform, since Efta is its own free trade bloc.”

    http://www.efta.int/sites/default/files/documents/legal-texts/efta-convention/Vaduz%20Convention%20Agreement.pdf

    Article 3:

    “Customs duties on imports and exports, and any charges having equivalent effect, shall
    be prohibited between the Member States.”

    How could the UK sign up to that, knowing that it had no power to guarantee fulfillment of that obligation when its customs duties would be determined by the EU?

  19. Everhopeful
    December 9, 2018

    If Mayā€™s deal passes it will be very interesting and immensely painful to live through/ witness the outcome. How will any government govern in future? Even more of a police state than we already have?

  20. agricola
    December 9, 2018

    Just make sure you can vote on Tuesday. May has done enough can kicking and needs to be stopped to accept the consequenses of her abysmal negotiating skills.

  21. APL
    December 9, 2018

    JR: “More fake news?”

    Suddenly you are surprised that the BBC is nothing but a propaganda apparatus.

    Now, who despite the best efforts of your leader, has a majority in Parliament. Why in the last nine years has someone in the Tory party not put forward a reform bill to reform the funding model of the BBC?

    Is your complaint about ‘fake news’ just more fake news?

    1. Turboterrier.
      December 9, 2018

      @APL

      Why in the last nine years has someone in the Tory party not put forward a reform bill to reform the funding model of the BBC?

      Exactly. Well past its sell by date. Totally out of touch with the people

  22. Den
    December 9, 2018

    The disease affecting USA politics has obviously infected the BBC. Fake news stories. They should not send so many of the people over there to try to bully the democratically elected POTUS to be exposed to this nasty virus.
    As far as the BBC is concerned, it is not their money being wasted and when they run out they merely bully the Government for more. Their next plan is to remove the free TV licence pass from the over 75s. Kick the elderly, well done BBC.
    Instead of spending more why do they not cut their OTT overheads. For example last August they sent 300 people to Glastonbury. All of them on a w/e jolly freebie all paid for by OUR licence fees . And still they abuse us.
    No wonder they love the EU but I suppose the Ā£Millions they receive from Brussels each year ensures some of their loyalty, also.

    1. John C.
      December 9, 2018

      Why do they not cut down their costs? Because they don’t have to. Both main parties are in some sort of awe of them. I can’t explain why THAT is.

  23. nshgp
    December 9, 2018

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3f94e2c091bc0bfb9df5a0730c59b037490da1452f18c3f8805f9ea5a850321.jpg

    European army being used to attack French Citizens.

    Why did Remain deny this?

  24. Adam
    December 9, 2018

    We agree to withdraw; not to agree to worse.

    Theresa May’s shabby Withdrawal Agreement is a wolf in sheep’s clothing: wooly & fiercely lurking opposed to UK freedom, poised to pounce.

  25. behindthefrogs
    December 9, 2018

    Glad to see that you are supporting the majority of your constituents who voted remain

    Reply I am indeed supporting the majority of my constituents who think this is a bad deal and have written to me in large numbers to tell me so. Latest polling shows 62% against 25% in favour of the Agreement nationwide. Wokingham is certainly not the other way round!

  26. ian
    December 9, 2018

    A gel gov is looking good at the moment with him spending a 1 trillion in the UK instead torys spending it in europe, at least if buys up companies with you will have something to show for it at the end of the day.

    1. mancunius
      December 9, 2018

      A gel gov, wossat, guv? :-))

      We already have a gel in charge. And I know millions who could do better.

  27. Pauline Jorgensen
    December 9, 2018

    Thank you John – keep fighting. We must not betray the Brexit vote of the right of Northern Ireland to remain an integral part of the UK!

  28. Ron Olden
    December 10, 2018

    Perhaps the report is referring to Tory MPs the whips think haven’t decided, or who are, at the 11th hour still persuadable.

    Accurate numbers are important to the whips because it allows them to to communicate to their contacts on the opposition benches how many abstentions or votes for the Deal they would need to pass it.

  29. Sue Doughty
    December 10, 2018

    Good. So wold I vote against this version – drop the backstop.

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