UK Edition
Exclusive: Labour, Liberal Democrats and SNP MPs plot to bring down the Government over Queen's Speech
Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP MPs are joining forces to try to bring down Theresa May's Government by passing amendments in Wednesday's Queen’s Speech.
The Opposition parties only need seven MPs to change sides to overturn the Government's 13-strong working majority which could trigger a no confidence motion in Parliament.
The parties are looking at defeating the Government on amendments covering legal rights for tenants to demand protection from the risk of fire, easier access to the single market, a Brexit commission, hundreds of millions of pounds more for the NHS and an open Irish border after Brexit.
The amendments will be published in the next 24 hours and come as left wing activists prepare to march on Parliament in a ‘Day of Rage’ protest against austerity tomorrow.
If any of the amendments are voted through it could signal the end of the Government. Historically if the Queen’s Speech is amended, the Prime Minister must resign. However, the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011 made clear that only a vote of no confidence vote in the House of Commons can bring it down.
One House of Commons source said that a successful amendment “would be a unique situation – they would have to make a decision if the Government was strong enough to continue”,
Nick Brown, Labour’s chief whip, met Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat chief whip today to discuss the plot.
Labour is understood to be proposing amendments on rights for tenants to give them a legal right to demand fire protection measures in their homes in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
One Labour source said it was "time to stop hiding behind red tape and [start] protecting lives".
Labour will also propose an amendment to provide easier access to the EU single market for companies and a National Economic Development Council to bring together employers, unions and ministers to find consensus on Brexit.
The council would be based on similar organisations in the 1970s – known as “Neddies” – which attempted to address Britain’s relative economic decline. It was scaled down through the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher, when she was Prime Minister, before finally being abolished by John Major’s Government in 1992.
The Liberal Democrats are proposing an amendment to force the Government to guarantee an open border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
It would also require ministers Government to deliver on the promise by the Vote Leave campaign at last year's referendum to spend some of the £350million that the UK hands to the EU every week on the National Health Service after Brexit.
The votes are expected to take place on Wednesday next week at the end of the Queen’s Speech debate. The Opposition hopes that two or three of the 10 DUP MPs will break ranks and vote for the amendments. With four Remain Tory MPs the amendments could be carried. However DUP MPs - who are set to agree to support the minority Tory Government - insisted that its MPs would not vote against the Government.
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, told The Telegraph “As part of our amendment to the Queen's Speech we will be putting a clear statement about an open border for Ireland. This is not tribal and pretty reasonable.
“This puts the Government in a tricky spot and offers us the chance to defeat them, the first time since 1924 that’s happened. Freedom of Movement matters and this is a clear way the other parties can work with the Liberal Democrats.”
However pro-EU Tory MPs insisted that it was unlikely that Conservative MPs would support the amendments because of the risk the Government could collapse.
One told The Telegraph: “It is too fragile at the moment. It would be very surprising if any single Conservative MP backed any amendment. The only person who will be helped by any defeat is Jeremy Corbyn and that is not where we are.”
On Monday Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Debbie Abrahams MP, wrote to the Government’s new DWP Secretary David Gauke urging him to reverse benefits cuts in the Queen’s Speech. An SNP spokesman declined to comment.
