Tory MPs face pressure to back May’s deal

Bloomberg

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond ramped up the pressure on Brexiteer Tory MPs as he warned they will trigger a long delay to leaving the European Union unless they support Theresa May’s proposed deal when it returns to Parliament.
A growing number of Tories are now backing the agreement, he said, and the deal will only be put to another vote in the House of Commons this week if the government is confident of victory. The deal was defeated for the second time on Tuesday and persuading opponents to switch is “a work in progress,” Hammond said.
“What’s happened since last Tuesday is a significant number of colleagues have changed their view on this and decided the alternatives are so unpalatable to them that they, on reflection, think that the prime minister’s deal is the best way to deliver Brexit,” Hammond said in an interview with BBC TV on Sunday. “It’s absolutely vital that we get it through next week, it’s the final chance to do this deal without having a long extension,” he said.
May has already conceded that her proposed exit date of March 29 will have to be put back and warned the delay could be much longer if Parliament refuses to back her agreement before Thursday’s meeting of the EU Council. That would mean British voters having to choose members of the European Parliament in May, an outcome that the prime minister said would be unacceptable.
“EU leaders would require a clear purpose for any extension that was not merely technical,” May wrote in an article for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. “If the proposal were to go back to square one and negotiate a new deal, that would mean a much longer extension. The idea of the British people going to the polls to elect MEPs three years after voting to leave the EU hardly bears thinking about.