National Post (National Edition)
Tory rebels side with Corbyn bid to topple PM
Colleagues decry ‘un-Conservative behaviour’
LONDON • Four Tory former ministers on Thursday welcomed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to bring down the government and become a caretaker prime minister in his efforts to stop a nodeal Brexit.
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, was branded un-Conservative by his own association chairman after he signed a letter with fellow Remainer rebels Sir Oliver Letwin, Dame Caroline Spelman and Nick Boles offering to meet the Labour leader “to discuss the different ways” to stop the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal on Oct. 31.
On Thursday night, Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, offered to meet Corbyn after initially dismissing as “nonsense” his plan to build a “strictly time-limited” cross-party coalition to force Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson out of office.
Swinson wrote on Twitter: “I’ve offered to meet Jeremy Corbyn to discuss how we can work together on a deliverable plan to stop nodeal, including the option of uniting behind an MP who can command a majority in the House.” Her climbdown could mean that the Tory rebels remain the last obstacle to Corbyn’s plan after the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru, a social democratic party in Wales, both signalled their support.
Guto Bebb, the Conservative MP for Aberconwy and a former defence minister, also suggested he would rather see Corbyn as prime minister than experience a no-deal Brexit.
Urging MPs to take Corbyn’s plan “seriously”, he said: “A short-term Jeremy Corbyn government is less damaging than the generational damage that would be caused by a no-deal Brexit”.
Johnson hit back, writing on Twitter: “The referendum result must be respected. We will leave the EU on October 31.”
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, criticized his colleagues, calling it “absolutely extraordinary that any Conservative MP considered even for one minute installing Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street”.
The four Tory former ministers were included in a letter sent by Corbyn to opposition leaders on Wednesday asking them to unite behind a “caretaker government,” led by him, to stop no deal by extending Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union.
He proposed an alternative government that would call a general election in which Labour would campaign for a new referendum.
On Thursday, Grieve, Sir Oliver, who was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under David Cameron, Dame Caroline, the former environment secretary, and Nick Boles, the former skills minister who resigned the Tory whip in April over Brexit, wrote back agreeing to hold talks.
The letter read: “We agree that our common priority should be to work together in Parliament to prevent no-deal Brexit and welcome your invitation to discuss the different ways that this might be achieved. We would be happy to meet with you as well as colleagues from other opposition parties whenever convenient in the weeks before Parliament returns.”
But the move prompted outrage in Grieve’s Beaconsfield constituency, where Jackson Ng, the chairman, said he had been “inundated with irate emails.” Grieve lost a local motion of confidence in March after he repeatedly rebelled against the Government over Brexit. Ng said: “The continuous and thoroughly un-Conservative behaviour being exhibited by Dominic Grieve and his behaviour toward the Government has become more worrying.
“Should he entertain the idea of siding with Jeremy Corbyn or any other government other than the existing Conservative Government currently being led by Boris Johnson, he will leave us with no choice at all as an association.”
A source at Sir Oliver’s West Dorset Conservative Association said: “We are completely at odds with our MP over this. This is the latest of many red lines he has crossed”.
On Thursday, Dame Caroline appeared to backtrack on the letter, saying: “I could not support a Corbyn government, end of. I am not going to vote against my own government in a vote of no confidence.”
Swinson, after gaining her 14th Lib Dem MP in Sarah Wollaston, suggested veteran MPs Ken Clarke or Harriet Harman for the role of caretaker prime minister, as they were “respected on both sides of the House”.