Tory Party Can Face Brexit Split

The UK Conservative party will suffer a “catastrophic split” if British Premier Theresa May pursues her Brexit plan, according to a former minister who said as many as 80 of her MPs are set to reject it. Steve Baker, who quit as a junior Brexit minister following the agreement on the plan by the Cabinet at the prime minister’s Chequers country residence, told the Press Association that he expected a showdown at the party’s conference, which begins later this month, Politico reported. “We are reaching the point now where it is extremely difficult to see how we can rescue the Conservative party from a catastrophic split if the Chequers proposals are carried forward,” he said. He said he hoped that Tory members at the conference would unite “around the idea that we can either leave having accepted the EU offer or we have to leave with nothing agreed.” He wants to shift the government toward negotiating a Canada-style trade deal with the EU.