Mogg blasts PM (but says he doesn’t want her job)
JACOB Rees-Mogg yesterday urged Theresa May to get tough with Brussels as he accused her of making a series of errors in the Brexit negotiations.
The prominent Tory backbencher said the Prime Minister had torn up one of her ‘strongest cards’ by ruling out a hardline stance on the Northern Irish border.
But despite his criticism, Mr Rees-Mogg – who is tipped as a potential future Tory leader – insisted he did not want to oust Mrs May.
He said ‘there’s no menace in me at all’, and described the Prime Minister as ‘the most impressive and dutiful leader that this country has had’.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Rees-Mogg added: ‘I don’t wish to be Prime Minister. I’m very happy being a backbench Member of Parliament. Of course I wouldn’t challenge Theresa May – that’s a ridiculous idea. The Prime Minister has my full support to remain as leader of the party. Mrs May is crucial to the Brexit project.’
But Mr Rees-Mogg, who is chairman of the Eurosceptic Tory backbench European Research Group, said Mrs May had made a mistake in talks over Northern Ireland by not unilaterally declaring that Britain would keep the border open and warning Brussels would be to blame if it wanted to erect checkpoints on its side.
He said: ‘The Prime Minister said in her Mansion House speech that she wasn’t going to do this. I think that is a mistake. I think it is the obvious negotiating position for us to have.
‘Bear in mind the Irish economy is heavily dependent on its trade with the United Kingdom. It is overwhelmingly in the interests of the Republic of Ireland to maintain an open border with the United Kingdom.
‘And I think if you’re going into a negotiation you should use your strongest cards, and just to tear one of them up and set hares running on other issues is, I think, an error.’
He added that the Government’s plans for a ‘backstop’ which would see the whole UK potentially tied to European Union rules in order to avoid a hard border – if no other way of solving the issue is possible – was ‘a real problem’ and could leave the UK as a ‘vassal state for an indeterminate period’.
Mr Rees-Mogg said ‘a lot of compromises’ had been made by the British side during negotiations with Brussels, and it was time for Mrs May to be ‘clear and strong’.
‘Basically the deal is very simple: we are paying a very large amount of money – £40billion – and in return we want a trade deal. Everything else is essentially incidental to that. The £40billion is of great importance to the EU because after March next year it still has 21 months of the multi-annum financial framework, and it expects that to be funded by the UK.
‘It would have to cancel projects or get more money out of the Germans if it doesn’t get our money.
‘Therefore we should reiterate that and say quite clearly that if we don’t get the trade deal we want, you don’t get the money. That’s a very strong negotiating position.’
He added: ‘On our side we’ve made a huge number of compromises, and on the other side, nothing has come in return. That makes me concerned.’
It came as Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said no decision had been made on whether the party’s MPs would be whipped to oppose membership of the single market when the Commons voted.
‘We haven’t decided our whipping arrangements yet,’ he said, adding: ‘ We’ve been pretty clear that there are deficiencies in the Norway model that might not work for a bespoke UK deal.’
Brexit minister Steve Baker said: ‘Tom Watson’s failure to rule out Labour voting to keep Britain tied to Brussels through the European Economic Area is just the latest sign that Labour are trying to frustrate Brexit.’
‘Huge number of compromises’