MPs back away from Irish anti-backstop amendment

Brexiter MPs have begun to back away from supporting an amendment which would have sent Theresa May back to Brussels to demand an alternative arrangement to the Irish border backstop.Graham Brady, the senior Tory backbencher behind the amendment said he was hopeful of ministerial support. His amendment says the backstop should be replaced by “alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border”, even though Ireland and the EU have repeatedly stressed such a change cannot happen.The amendment has high-profile backing from the former Cabinet minister Damian Green, the chair of the Northern Ireland select committee, Andrew Murrison, and the pro-Leave MP Nigel Evans.However, the veteran Brexiter MP Bernard Jenkin called the amendment “very vague” and said he was minded not to support it.“It’s vague because it’s meant to mean different things to different people and if people vote for that in the expectation some things are going to happen and then they don’t happen it will lead to more misunderstanding and disappointment, it won’t help at all,” he told ITV.“I will not be backing the Brady amendment as far as I’ve decided so far, but there are discussions going on and let’s see what’s happening out of those discussions.” His concerns were echoed by the former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith who said MPs wanted to see leadership from No 10 rather than depend on the momentum from backbenchers’ amendments.“This is the time when the PM must make clear her intentions in the negotiation,” he told the BBC. “We need more than backbench amendments with nods and winks from the government. We need clarity and purpose.” Speaking earlier yesterday, Brady said his amendment was intended to break the impasse. “I’m hoping that the way in which the amendment is crafted can attract that very broad support. And if we can win the vote on my amendment, then I think it gives the prime minister enormous firepower when she goes back,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“If my amendment is carried, she goes back to Brussels and says: you wanted to know what we can get through the House of Commons? This is it.”Those behind Brady’s amendment had also hoped to attract the support of the DUP. However, the party’s Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, yesterday urged a more hardline approach.“The real chaos when it come to the backstop is in Brussels and Dublin,” he said. “Now is the time for the prime minister to exploit the cracks which are emerging in the illogical position of the EU and the Irish.” Other moderate Tories also expressed deep scepticism about the effectiveness of the amendment, even if the party was eventually whipped to back it. “If Brexiteers buy this they’re a total pushover,” one Tory MP said.“The amendment may as well say: ‘I’d like world peace.’ What it does is underline that we don’t have an alternative. If No 10 have a plan that can get a majority, then table that and take it to the EU. But saying we don’t like this backstop, give us an alternative, isn’t a plan.”