U.K. Digital Minister Margot James said on Thursday she would do “whatever it takes in the end” to prevent a no-deal Brexit.
Speaking at POLITICO’s Women Rule summit in Brussels, James wouldn’t say whether she would vote against the government in a no-confidence motion, but did not rule it out.
“I’m not prepared to say how I will vote on something so hypothetical in four or five months or two or three months’ time. I mean, parliamentary votes are fraught enough,” James said.
But probed on whether she was ruling out the move, she said: “No, at the moment I just won’t decide in advance,” adding later: “I will do whatever it takes in the end, but I hope there will be something more sensible than bringing the government down.”
Asked whether she would like to see the EU’s Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager continue in her role or perhaps even take one of the EU’s top jobs such as the Commission presidency, James said: “Very much so.”
“I’ve been really impressed with Commissioner Vestager,” James said. “She has used the competition law and the powers that the Commission have to hold the big tech companies to account I think a way that no country or bloc of countries have managed to do.”
Post-Brexit Britain “will struggle to emulate the use of competition law,” James added. “The power of the European Union combined when it comes into this space is obvious, the combined powers of 28 member states and a huge market of consumers, and it’s going to be difficult for Britain as a single country to emulate that power.”
James said she hadn’t been approached by Jo Swinson, one of the candidates vying for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, to defect from the Conservative Party. But asked whether she thought she had more in common with Swinson or Conservative leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson, James said: “Jo Swinson.”