Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft divorce deal with the European Union was in jeopardy on Thursday after her Brexit secretary and other ministers quit in protest and her own eurosceptic lawmakers called for her to be ousted.
Just over 12 hours after May announced that her cabinet had agreed to the terms of the deal, Brexit minister Dominic Raab and work and pensions minister Esther McVey resigned.
Eurosceptics in May’s Conservative Party said they had submitted letters calling for a vote of no confidence in her leadership.
Two junior ministers, two ministerial aides and the Conservatives’ vice chairman also quit. Hostility to the deal from government and opposition lawmakers raised the risk that the deal would be rejected and Britain would leave the EU on March 29 without a safety net.
By seeking to preserve the closest possible ties with the EU, May has upset her party’s many advocates of a clean break, and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up her minority government.
Meanwhile, proponents of closer relations with the EU in her own party and the Labour opposition say the deal squanders the advantages of membership for little gain.
Both sides say it effectively cedes power to the EU without securing the promised benefits of greater autonomy.
“It is … mathematically impossible to get this deal through the House of Commons. The stark reality is that it was dead on arrival,” said Conservative Brexit-supporting lawmaker Mark Francois.
May, who scheduled a news conference for 1700 GMT, will need the backing of about 320 lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament to pass the deal.
The ultimate outcome remains uncertain. Scenarios include May’s deal ultimately winning approval; May losing her job; Britain leaving the bloc with no agreement; or even another referendum.
Analysts from U.S. bank Citi (C.N) said Britain was now likely either to stay in the EU or leave without a deal.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of a Conservative eurosceptic group in parliament, said he had formally requested a vote of no confidence in May, and that the draft was “worse than anticipated”.
At least 14 Conservative lawmakers openly said they had submitted such letters, although others could have done so secretly. Forty-eight letters are needed to trigger a challenge.
But the prime minister told parliament: “The choice is clear. We can choose to leave with no deal, we can risk no Brexit at all, or we can choose to unite and support the best deal that can be negotiated.”
Her spokesman said May intended to be prime minister when Britain leaves the bloc next year.
And a key ally, former interior minister Amber Rudd, told Sky News: “The problem isn’t the prime minister. The problem is the challenges she’s got to deliver in trying to pull together this Brexit. She’s the best person to do it.”
Boris Johnson, a leading critic of May’s Brexit plans who has done little to hide his political ambition, attended a meeting of the European Research Group, where Rees-Mogg and members discussed how many no-confidence letters had gone in.
