Michael Portillo: Theresa May Will Lose Third Meaningful Vote

17 March 2019, 13:34 | Updated: 17 March 2019, 13:42

Michael Portillo believes the Prime Minister's Brexit deal will gain support, but not enough to pass through Parliament.

Speaking to Nigel Farage, the former Tory Cabinet Minister said: "I think if she puts it to a final vote again this week, she will lose by rather less than last week, and much less than before, but I still think that she will lose.

"The position of the DUP is extremely important, it's not just the votes that the DUP have it's also that quite a lot of Conservative MPs feel bound to show solidarity with the DUP

"So if the DUP came across, that would bring many more votes than just the DUP votes.

"For instance, I'm pretty sure Jacob Rees-Mogg would be voting for the deal if the DUP were on board - but that's still a very big if, I'm not too sure the DUP can be brought across."

- Nigel Farage And Michael Portillo - Interview In Full

But when Nigel put to Mr Portillo that Theresa May could bring other threats to the table in order to gather support for her deal, he warned that EU countries could decide to raise their own.

"There are certainly other threats that they could use," he started.

"The French could say that they want fishing to be part of this, that we need to make concessions on our fishing grounds.

"And the Spanish could say that the question of Gibraltar needs to be brought into play as part of conceding the extension."

He added that the threats could suit the Prime Minister and her call for MPs to support her deal because any extension to Article 50 could be on terms on Gibraltar and fishing.

"People would be so cross with her by then, the whole thing is unimaginable," he said.

"But if you're asking if it could get any worse, definitely it can get worse."