A group of former cabinet ministers is planning a public intervention to try to show that the Conservative parliamentary party would support a “sensible” Brexit.
Justine Greening, Amber Rudd and Damian Green want to show the prime minister that she would have sufficient support to face down Brexit hardliners in her party.
Newsnight understands that their message has been supported in private by Julian Smith, the government chief whip.
In a pointed intervention, Mr Smith reportedly told members of the cabinet’s Brexit cabinet sub-committee that they should, according to one witness, “get real” about the numbers in parliament.
The former cabinet ministers, who supported Remain in the EU referendum, have decided to act after concluding that it will not be possible to agree a Brexit deal that is accepted by all wings of the Conservative parliamentary party.
Talks with the Brexit-supporting European Research Group (ERG), led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, have persuaded members of the new group that there is little chance of finding common ground.
The group has won the support of some former Leave supporters, though none of these is so far willing to go public. One senior Leaver supporting the new initiative told Newsnight: “The prime minister will have to face down the ERG… maybe she also has to sack a cabinet minister.”
In their discussions the group has decided that Theresa May has crucial numbers at Westminster at two levels:
▪ In the event of a vote of confidence in her leadership, the prime minister would have the support of at least half of the 316 Tory MPs. That would be enough to survive a confidence vote which the ERG could, theoretically, trigger with the support of just 48 MPs.
▪ Parliament as a whole would reject a no deal Brexit. It is calculated that up to 300 of the opposition and independent MPs would join at least 100 Tory MPs in voting down a no deal, passing the 322 MPs needed to secure a parliamentary majority.
A no deal end to the Brexit negotiations is seen as unlikely. But members of the new group believe that highlighting the prospect of such scenario – and how it would be rejected in parliament – can be used to persuade Theresa May that she would have a strong hand if she decided to challenge MPs advocating a no deal.
One senior figure in the new group told Newsnight: “The prime minister is going to have to make a decision. If she comes down on the side of the ERG to keep 60 of them happy that will be unacceptable to us and our numbers are larger.
“In the coming weeks we will be showing what the mainstream is thinking – Leavers and Remainers. This is about identifying a locus, where the mainstream lies to allow the prime minister to land this in the right place.”
But Mr Hannan warned that the UK may be forced to accept a no deal. “No deal is plainly better than a bad deal… Imagine that you were buying a car and you said to the car dealer: ‘I am definitely going to walk out of this showroom with your vehicle, now let’s sit down and haggle about the price.’ That would be a ridiculous position.”
A source in the ERG dismissed the proposed intervention. The source pointed out that seven Brexit-leaning Conservative MPs, who are not in the ERG, would withdraw their support from Theresa May if she negotiated a deal they found unacceptable. This would cancel out her parliamentary majority which she assembled last year with support from the DUP.
Sweden continues to be at the top of the EU’s ranking of member states’ digital maturity. Since last year we have climbed a location – but two years ago we were ranked as number one.
Only Denmark is ahead of us this year’s review of the digital maturity of EU countries. And the Swedes are diligent to use digital services. We put ourselves in the top when it comes to listening to music or watching movies online. And we also have the prerequisites – we are at the forefront of both the expansion of 4g and the proportion of households subscribing to ultra-fast broadband.
Sweden is also high-third in terms of using digital public services. 90 percent of internet users in Sweden submit forms digitally to the authorities.
The reason that Sweden is now getting a better position is that we are doing well in broadband expansion and the citizens’ use of the internet. But a big challenge is still the public sector. Here we need to switch up and offer better digital services in, for example, healthcare and other government contacts. We also need to continue to work actively to cope with the expansion of high-speed broadband in the countryside, “said Peter Eriksson, Minister for Digitalization in a comment.
But it’s not just that gems have a digital everyday life. Sweden is also second largest in terms of the number of IT specialists – after Finland. At the same time, the number of needs we have on long roads does not cover. And the number of graduates in science, engineering, engineering and mathematics is lagging behind many other EU countries.
Even though we remain at the top, we are not moving forward faster than other EU countries. Progress is generally in line with the EU average and other countries in the high-performing cluster are found in the EU report.
THE LIST
1. Denmark
2. Sweden
3. Finland
4. The Netherlands
5. Luxembourg
6. Ireland
7. Great Britain
8. Belgium
9. Estonia
10. Spain
11. Austria
12. Malta
13. Liechtenstein
14. Germany
15. EU in total
16. Slovenia
17. Portugal
18. Czechoslovakia
19. France
20. Latvia
21.Slovakien
22. Cyprus
23. Croatia
24. Hungary
25. Poland
26. Italy
27. Bulgaria
28. Greece
29. Romania
Benedict Cumberbatch ‘Brexit’ Drama Set for Channel 4. Cumberbatch will star in a Channel 4 TV drama about the Brexit vote in the U.K., which will be timed to air as Britain leaves the European Union next March. Cumberbatch will play Dominic Cummings, the leading strategist and campaign director of the Vote Leave movement, which sought to persuade British voters to opt for exiting the EU.
“I am particularly pleased to commission James Graham’s hard-hitting and compulsive drama on how the Brexit vote was won with Benedict Cumberbatch in a new role,” Channel 4’s new programming boss, Ian Katz, said at a Channel 4 event in London, Wednesday. “It will be broadcast just ahead of our formal [exit] from the EU in March, assuming that we actually get around to leaving.”
Graham wrote the stage play “The Vote,” which was set on the night of the general election vote and featured an ensemble cast including Mark Gatiss and Judi Dench. His Channel 4 project “Brexit” will be a 120-minute one-off.
“I’m so excited – not to mention a little nervous – to have this chance to try and get under the skin of what happened during that historic vote,” Graham said. “I hope by going behind-the-scenes of the campaign, we’re able to interrogate the consequences of what happened during these 8 weeks that have changed the country forever.”
Beth Willis, head of drama at Channel 4, added: “James’ whip smart, funny and insightful writing is a breath of fresh air. We are so thrilled that he and the genius that is Benedict Cumberbatch feel Channel 4 is the right home for it – Brexit is exactly the kind of explosive and illuminating drama we want to have on the channel.”
House Productions, the U.K. indie producer created by former Working Title TV boss Juliette Howell and former Film4 head Tessa Ross, will produce “Brexit.” Toby Haynes (“Black Mirror”) will direct. Shooting starts later this year.
Britain and Europe are still grappling with the likely impact Brexit will have. At the Cannes Film Festival last week Margot James, minister for the digital and creative industries told Variety it would not have a significant impact on the U.K. film industry.
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