May warned indicative votes will leave UK with ‘Auf Wiedersehen Pet’ Brexit that ‘no one wants’ as Downing Street draws up plans to let MPs pick ‘alternative options’ on how to leave the EU
- PM reported to be considering a series of votes in the Commons
- It comes as talks with Labour over breaking the deadlock have become stuck
- One option under consideration is allowing MPs to list their Brexit preferences
- Analogy with scene from 1980s comedy about British builders, about a shed
- They buy yellow paint because ‘two people put it down as their second choice’
Theresa May has been warned she could end up with an ‘Auf Wiedersehen Pet’ Brexit if she allows MPs to shape any final deal in quitting the EU.
The Prime Minister is reported to be considering a series of votes in the Commons in the next few weeks as talks with Labour over breaking the deadlock have themselves become stuck.
One option under consideration is allowing MPs to list their Brexit preferences, allowing their second and third choices to be counted if no one option gets an outright majority, the Telegraph reported.
But sources warned this opened up the chance that no one’s favourite Brexit gets picked.
They told the paper: ‘There is a scene in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet where the builders pick a colour to paint their shed and end up with yellow.
‘They are all baffled because no-one voted for yellow, but it turns out that two people put it down as their second choice.
‘So there is an issue with a ranking system, as it comes with the inherent danger that you end up with a result that no-one wanted.’
Auf Wiedersehen Pet made stars of Jimmy Nail (middle right), Timothy Spall (back right) and Kevin Whately (back left)
In the scene the builders cannot decide what colour to paint a shed so they have a vote. The winner is yellow despite none of them wanting it to be that colour
It is later explained that because several of them put yellow down as a second preference it won when all the others were deadlocked
Some Conservative officials believe the party could win less than 10 per cent of the vote in the European election, which would lead to even more calls for Mrs May to go
Other options are said to include a knockout system.
Last week it was suggested that if talks between Labour and the Government over Brexit had not achieved anything by today they might be halted.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet was a popular comedy-drama about a group of British builders who went to Germany in search of work.
It made stars of Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall and Kevin Whately and ran for 40 episodes in several stints between 1983 and 2004.
Theresa May is believed to be planning a fresh attempt to get Britain of the EU before Euro elections in a fortnight amid plots to topple her as Tory leader.
A senior backbencher suggested that he expected ministers to bring forward the Withdrawal Agreement Bill – required to ratify her deal in law – in the ‘near future’.
But some Tories have warned that the bold decision could see the Prime Minister fall into a Brexiteer trap to topple her quickly – while she plans to stay on until the autumn – according to ITV News.
They believe a heavy defeat in the Commons for the bill would signal that the Prime Minister has no chance of getting Brexit done at all and should hand over to someone else.
After a local election humiliation last week some Conservative officials believe the party could win less than 10 per cent of the vote to finish below Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and even Change UK, the Financial Times reported.
The chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady, who met the Prime Minister privately on Tuesday, suggested she could make a final effort to get her Brexit deal through Parliament before the European elections, when the party is expected to suffer even heavier losses.