Theresa May clings to power as Brexit gambit backfires

[brooklynite]

1. UPDATE: May close to abandoning Brexit bill amid growing cabinet backlash

The Guardian

In response to a question from Labour’s Valerie Vaz, Mark Spencer, the government whip, has just clarified two points about the EU withdrawal agreement bill (Wab).

Spencer said the Wab would now be published in the week beginning Monday 3 June. That is the second time this week it has been postponed. Yesterday morning Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said it would be published later that day. Then, in the afternoon, Theresa May said it would be published tomorrow. Spencer’s admission that publication has been postponed until June will increase suspicions that, in practice, it will never be published at all. May is under huge pressure to abandon the bill because it is so unpopular with backbenchers and ministers, and seems doomed to defeat.

Spencer said that the government was hoping to hold the second reading debate of the Wab on Friday 7 June but that it could not get announcement yet because it could not get agreement through “the usual channels”. That implies Labour are refusing to agree to get the Commons to sit on Friday when it was meant to be in recess.