By Rory Tingle For Mailonline. Hardcore Brexiteers who voted against Theresa May 's withdrawal deal are beginning to crack, as the PM battles to secure the support of 75 more defectors to win her crucial vote next week. It comes after David Davis made the bombshell decision to vote for the deal on Tuesday, and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey said she would be going through the aye lobby next week 'the rules have changed'.
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She swerved a proper rebellion by playing everyone else off against each other.
Theresa May is looking increasingly isolated after senior Brexiteers demanded she name her departure date to save her Brexit deal during an emergency summit at Chequers. The Prime Minister called a meeting at her country residence that included Tory big beasts Boris Johnson , David Davis and Iain Duncan Smith in a bid to secure support for her withdrawal agreement ahead of a week of crucial votes. During the talks, Mrs May was handed an ultimatum to spell out her departure date in return for their backing but the Prime Minister remained defiant and refused to do so.
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When the British public voted to leave the EU on 23 June, the immediate impulse - on the part of pro-Remainers at least - was post-mortem analysis. Where did things go wrong? How did the 'in' camp lose the argument? Then came the blame game. Soon enough, Jeremy Corbyn found himself the victim of a post-referendum backlash, his perceived lack of commitment to the pro-EU cause ultimately leading to an attempted overthrow. Meanwhile, a Conservative Party eternally riven by internal divisions on the European issue were left alone to fight their next civil war: hard vs soft Brexit. Theresa May has proven particularly slippery on this front. While dutifully backing David Cameron's stance during the campaign, she was notably absent from pro-Remain platforms.
S ome of you will be old enough to remember when the choice was leave or remain. How quaint it seems now. Because once the country voted in June , we faced a new choice. For the true believers, simply leaving the European Union was not good enough: it had to be a hard, rather than a soft, Brexit. Now even a hard departure is not sufficient for the most devout Brexiteers.
