Senior ministers need to “step up to the plate” and be ready to quit to block a no-deal Brexit if Theresa May fails to renegotiate her deal with the EU, one of her former colleagues has said.
Alistair Carmichael, ex-deputy chief whip in the coalition government, urged the likes of Business Secretary Greg Clark, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Chancellor Philip Hammond to show they are “the grown-ups in the room” and follow through on threats to resign if necessary.
The senior Liberal Democrat MP told HuffPost UK’s Commons People podcast it was “highly likely” that Brussels will block May’s plan to water down or scrap the Irish border backstop before a second meaningful vote on the deal on February 14.
And he stressed that although Labour MP Yvette Cooper’s amendment to block a no-deal Brexit this week failed to pass the Commons, “raw politics” would take over at cabinet level to ensure it does not happen.
Predicting another Chequers-style showdown of the cabinet, Carmichael said: “If she comes back without having achieved anything, which seems highly likely, there will then need to be a counter-reaction or else we are in no-deal territory.
“And I think at that point attention turns to the grown-ups in the cabinet.
“You have to look to the likes of Greg Clark, Amber Rudd, Philip Hammond, they have to really step up to the plate at that point if we are to avoid no deal.
“That’s not going to be something you see troops voting in the division lobbies on.
“That will be a bit of raw politics around the cabinet table, but if it gets you to the point that you need to be, then if that’s what it takes then that’s what will have to happen.”
The Orkney and Shetland MP stressed that ministers must be prepared to quit the government to force the PM’s hand.
“The really interesting raw politics comes if she gets her response to that move wrong,” he said.
“Because we’ve all been saying for months now this looks bad for Theresa May, she can’t last – she keeps lasting.
“But if she lost people like Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd, Greg Clark, Richard Harrington outside the cabinet, then you do have to wonder how long she can carry on as prime minister with any credibility.”
Carmichael also accused Chief Whip Julian Smith of acting like he was a character in Michael Dobbs’ House of Cards rather than running an effective operation.
He criticised Smith’s public cajoling of Tory MP Justine Greening in the Commons chamber as votes were held on Brexit amendments on Tuesday.
The chief whip reportedly told Greening the government was at risk of collapse as he urged her to vote for Sir Graham Brady’s amendment on the backstop, stressing: “We are this close to being out of power.”
But Greening remained seated in the Commons and replied: “It’s your fault for being so rubbish.”
Commenting on the incident, Carmichael said: “They have got the psychology all wrong, the way in which they engage with their own backbenchers is often counter productive, it certainly doesn’t bring in results, and the incident with Justine Greening was one very good example of that.
“There are just too many people in government at the moment who think they know about whipping because they once read Michael Dobbs’ book House of Cards.
“Magnificent piece of fiction though it is, it’s exactly that, it’s not an instruction manual.”