Philip Hammond rallies No Deal Brexit rebels and vows: we'll find means to block Boris Johnson

Philip HAMMOND clashed bitterly with 10 Downing Street today
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Philip Hammond clashed bitterly with 10 Downing Street today as the former chancellor rallied rebel Tory heavyweights for a September showdown in Parliament over a no-deal Brexit.

In a ferocious attack on No 10, he argued that crashing out of the EU without a deal would be “as much a betrayal” of the 2016 referendum as not leaving at all.

And in a rallying cry to MPs to block a no-deal exit, he vowed that “a means will be delivered” for Parliament to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to go back to the negotiating table and delay Brexit.

Government sources hit back with an accusation — not denied by Mr Hammond’s supporters — that he undermined Theresa May’s efforts to water down the backstop this year by giving a private promise to Ireland that Britain would never seek to leave without a deal.

Mr Hammond wants Boris Johnson to go back to the negotiating table and delay Brexit
AFP/Getty Images

One figure close to the Prime Minister claimed Mr Hammond’s intervention was “actually making the chances of doing a deal more unlikely and heightening the chances that we leave without a deal”. The clash set the scene for a possible no-confidence vote after MPs return from summer break on September 3.

In key developments as Westminster prepared for an historic Parliament versus Government face-off:

  • Six former Cabinet ministers, including Mr Hammond, were among 21 senior Conservative MPs who have written a leaked letter to the PM voicing alarm that his insistence on scrapping the backstop meant there was “no realistic probability of a deal being done”. The letter, seen by the Evening Standard, made clear that Mr Johnson, who has a majority of just one, is facing a major rebellion.

  • Essential supplies will be “airlifted” into Britain in a chaotic Brexit, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed. “We may never need it, and that is my goal,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “But if we do, my goal is also to be fully prepared.”

  • Lord Lisvane, former clerk to the House of Commons, said the PM’s reputation would be “shredded” if he attempted to suspend the Commons in order to prevent MPs voting.

  • Commons Speaker John Bercow declared that he “will fight with every breath in my body” to prevent the PM being allowed  to suspend Parliament to force through no deal against MPs’ wishes.

  • Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson called for MPs in all parties to stop a no-deal Brexit by any means. His words were seen as a rebuff to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who has ruled out a unity government being formed to take control of the issue.

Mr Hammond said he was “very confident” that Parliament could outlaw a no-deal Brexit on October 31 by passing legislation. However, he did not reveal how MPs could seize the Commons agenda.

Interviewed on the Today programme, he said there would be a “constitutional crisis” if the PM tried to bypass or shut down MPs.

He said unelected figures at No 10 were “pulling the strings in Downing Street”, a reference to Mr Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings, the former head of Vote Leave.

Refusing to have any backstop was a “wrecking tactic”, he argued, adding: “Leaving the EU without a deal would be just as much a betrayal of the referendum result as not leaving at all.”

The Government source said Mr Hammond had undermined Mrs May during a conversation with an Irish finance minister earlier this year, at a time she was pleading for a time limit to the backstop.

Responding to claims that Mr Hammond repeatedly blocked spending to prepare fully for no deal, his former aide Tory MP Huw Merriman tweeted “This is utter piffle.” He was retweeted by former justice secretary David Gauke.

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