Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, warned Theresa May that she could be forced to resign if she decided to go ahead with her Brexit deal, in the event that it is rejected in the House of Commons in next week's vote.
"How the PM responds after the vote matters more than anything else she has done," Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph.
"I believe that if the response is, ‘we've lost but we will do this all over again' it will become a leadership issue. I don't want it to be. If she and the Cabinet decide to brazen it out and simply say anything under 200 is not as big as you think, then that would be a disaster," he added. At least 320 MPs need to vote for the deal in order for it to succeed, according to The Guardian.
Even if the upcoming vote failed, the UK PM would have a chance to develop a new deal with better terms; if she doesn't manage to do, so she would also have to stand down, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing Cabinet ministers.
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There is a widespread belief that there is "zero" chance of May's deal getting ratified; it has already been criticized by more than a hundred Tory MPs, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The preparations for bringing Theresa May down in the event that the Brexit deal fails have already started, as Labour members of Parliament are looking for an opportunity in cooperation with Tories and the northern Ireland-based Democratic Unionist Party to conduct a vote against Theresa's leadership, according to The Times.
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Earlier, on November 14, May announced that her Cabinet had approved a Brexit deal. Soon after the announcement, a wave of resignations hit May's Cabinet. So far, 7 ministers have left the Cabinet, including the Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.
The leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg had earlier described May's deal as a "rotten deal". Its most controversial propositions concern the future of EU citizens in the UK and British citizens residing in the EU-27, the framework of bilateral EU-UK trade relations, and the "regulatory regime proposed for Northern Ireland".