MPs CAN’T block No Deal Brexit, warns Cabinet minister Matt Hancock

Remainer MPs were today warned they cannot block Brexit – amid claims Boris Johnson is plotting a ‘people versus politicians’ election this autumn.

The Prime Minister has unveiled a £1.8billion one-off cash injection to boost the health service, as he continues what looks like a pre-poll spending spree.  

Suspicions have been fuelled after it emerged much of the money will go to Brexit-voting areas.

Meanwhile, Downing Street has upped the ante by insisting the UK will leave the EU by the end of October ‘whatever the circumstances’, and even if no more laws have been passed to prepare. 

The government’s wafer-thin majority and Remainer MPs means many at Westminster now expect an election within months. 

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted today that he no longer believes MPs can prevent the UK from crashing out by the Halloween deadline. 

Mr Johnson’s maverick adviser Dominic Cummings is reported to have told aides that the premier will simply refuse to quit if he loses a confidence vote when the Commons returns in September.

He is believed to be preparing a pro-Brexit, anti-establishment campaign if the government is forced to go to the country. 

The premier dismissed the election fever this afternoon, telling reporters in Lincolnshire: ‘The people of the UK voted in the election 2015, they had a referendum in 2015, and another election in 2017. 

‘They want us to deliver what they asked for – and that is for us to leave the EU. 

‘The last thing I want to do is call another election.’ 

Tory party chairman James Cleverly insisted yesterday that Mr Johnson had no plans to call a general election – but said No 10 was prepared for the possibility that Labour could try to force one to avoid a No Deal Brexit.

One source described Downing Street as being in ‘full campaign mode’.

Mr Cummings, the strategist behind the Vote Leave referendum campaign, apparently made clear at a meeting with aides last week that the PM will not resign even if he loses a vote of confidence when Parliament returns in September.

Instead he could stay in place and use his executive powers to set the election date for after the Brexit date of October 31.

Mr Hancock said today that he no longer believed there was anything MPs can do to stop the UK leaving the EU by the Halloween deadline. 

‘There were votes in Parliament just before we rose for summer that I thought would stop a no-deal Brexit and actually were defeated,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘There was a vote in particular in the middle of the leadership contest where Parliament was asked if it wanted to stop a no-deal Brexit. I thought that would go through and in fact the Government won by 11.

‘I now don’t think it can (stop no-deal). I thought that it could and the votes went differently to what I anticipated. When the facts change, sometimes even as a politician you have to change your mind.’

Mr Hancock also tried to quell the election rumours, insisting he agreed with ‘Brenda’ – the Bristol woman who famously wailed ‘not another one’ when told by the BBC that Theresa May had called the 2017 election 

But one government aide told the Financial Times: ‘I think the Vote Leave people in here will do literally anything to win. 

‘Cummings is already planning the Facebook campaign for a ‘people versus the politicians’ election.’ 

Downing Street insisted the UK will be leaving the EU on October 31 ‘whatever the circumstances’.

Asked whether it was too late for Parliament to stop a no-deal Brexit, the PM’s official spokesman said his view was that ‘the UK will be leaving the EU on October 31, whatever the circumstances’. 

‘There are no ifs or buts,’ the spokesman added. ‘We must restore trust in our democracy and fulfil the repeated promises of Parliament to the people by coming out of the EU on October 31.

‘Politicians cannot choose which votes to respect. They promised to respect the referendum result and we must do.’

At a regular briefing for political journalists at Westminster, the spokesman repeatedly refused to be drawn on what the Government would do if MPs voted against no-deal, saying it was a ‘hypothetical’ question.

‘The legal default, as put in place by Parliament, is that we will be leaving on October 31,’ the spokesman said. 

Speaking on a visit to Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ‘We will do everything to stop no-deal including a no confidence vote at the appropriate very early time to do it. 

‘The Prime Minister seems to be trying to slip no-deal through, slip past Parliament and slip past the British people. 

‘Sorry, no-deal will be really serious. Serious for food prices, for medical supplies, for trade, for investment and drive us straight into the hands of the sort of trade deal that Donald Trump wants to do with Boris Johnson.’ 

An ally of the Prime Minister said No 10’s focus this month will be on core priorities: the NHS, crime and education.

‘We want to make sure people feel it at the front line. Boris is following through with his promises,’ they said.

Mr Johnson said: ‘The NHS is always there for us – free at the point of use for everyone in the country. With our doctors and nurses working tirelessly day in, day out, this treasured institution truly showcases the very best of Britain.

‘That’s why I made it my immediate task to make sure front-line services have the funding they need, to make a real difference to the lives of NHS staff, and above all, of patients.

‘I’m delivering on this promise with a £1.8billion cash injection.’

But experts said the money, while desperately needed, was just a fraction of what is required to restore ailing NHS buildings.

Ben Gershlick of the Health Foundation charity said: ‘Years of under-investment means this extra money risks being little more than a drop in the ocean.’

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said the cash would only cover a fraction of the cost of upgrading 20 hospitals. ‘Nobody should expect shiny new hospitals in their towns any time soon,’ he warned.

Sally Copley of the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘The NHS knows it can only thrive if the social care system is fit for purpose – 850,000 people living with dementia have waited long enough, so we are all looking to the Government to now deliver on social care, and look forward to the Prime Minister’s next announcement.’

Mr Johnson also announced extra cash for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to be spent by their devolved administrations.

The funding includes almost £100million for a new hospital block in Birmingham, £72million on a new adult mental health in-patient unit in Manchester and £100million for a women and children’s hospital in Truro.

The seats of Labour defectors have been targeted amid signs the Tories may wish to take advantage of splits on the Left.

The £1.8billion funding is in addition to the extra £33.9billion, in cash terms, that the NHS is set to receive every year by 2023/24.

‘This is just the start of the spending blitz by Boris on the NHS,’ a Government source said.

Mr Johnson yesterday pledged to sort out the NHS pensions crisis.

His ministers are close to finalising a deal to allow GPs and consultants to side-step punitive tax bills that encourage them to drop shifts or retire early. ‘We are fixing it,’ the Prime Minister told the Sunday Times.