Tory rebel holds secret talks with pro-EU group
Grieve spotted slipping into meeting with key Remainers
A KEY Tory rebel was accused of ‘supping with the devil’ last night after he held secret talks with avowed enemies of Brexit.
Dominic Grieve was spotted slipping into the European Commission’s Smith Square HQ in London yesterday for a private meeting of campaigners set on reversing the result of the EU referendum.
Attendees included Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell and Tory and Lib Dem peers who have rebelled over Brexit. Also present were leaders of People’s Vote, which campaigns for a second referendum, Open Britain, the successor organisation to the official Remain campaign, and Best for Britain, the antiBrexit group backed by George Soros.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Tory Leaver, said: ‘Dominic should be careful about the company he keeps if he wishes to maintain his position that this is not about stopping Brexit.
‘He is someone I trust and when he says he is not trying to frustrate Brexit I believe him but the people he is associating with are clear they do want to stop Brexit.
‘If you sup with the devil you should use a long spoon, and he is using an egg spoon.’
An agenda for the ‘Where Next for Brexit?’ meeting marked ‘in confidence’ was seen by the Mail. It says: ‘This informal forum connects the main operational UK pro-EU organisations and individuals and meets under the Chatham House Rule.’
This rule holds that the discussions should not be made public.
Mr Grieve was expected to talk about the EU Withdrawal Bill, which caused parliamentary turmoil this week.
The QC and former attorney general led a group of 13 Tory MPs who forced Theresa May into making concessions on Tuesday evening. Despite insisting they are not trying to reverse Brexit, the MPs are threatening to back a House of Lords amendment that would make it impossible to leave the EU without a ‘deal’.
It would also put Parliament in charge of the final stage of the negotiations. Minutes after Mr
‘Supping with the devil’
Grieve left yesterday’s meeting the participants started planning on a campaign for a second referendum to stop Brexit.
Mr Rees-Mogg said it was ‘completely improper’ for the Commission to allow its buildings ‘to be used in a domestic political controversy’.
‘We fund the EU and it should not use our money to interfere in our domestic affairs,’ he said.
Sir Bill Cash, the chairman of the Commons European scrutiny committee, said: ‘It’s clear that Mr Grieve is consorting with those people who are all intent on reversing Brexit.
‘It makes his claim that he is trying to be helpful to the Government transparent nonsense.’
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘I’m surprised if he is meeting with a whole load of people whose sole purpose is to stop Brexit when he has said it is not his intention to do so.’
Mr Grieve said it was ‘rubbish’ to suggest the meeting revealed his true intentions. He also claimed the invitation was made ‘a long time ago’. ‘They asked me to go along and explain something about what was going on in Parliament, just as I go and talk to all sorts of groups,’ Mr Grieve said.
‘If I was invited by an audience that was interested in the issue that were Leavers I would go as well. We live in a democratic country where people engage with all sorts of people.’
It came on another day of drama in Westminster during which Theresa May was locked in talks with Mr Grieve and other Tory rebels over their demand that MPs should be given the power to ‘direct’ Brexit policy, which critics claim could lead to the UK staying in the EU. And reports claimed that Europhile Tory Anna Soubry and Labour MP Chuka Umunna have used cross-party anti-Brexit talks to discuss the formation of a new party called Back Together;
Mr Campbell was seen entering Europe House shortly after 10.30am yesterday. Mr Grieve followed just before 10.45am.
Shortly afterwards came Tom Baldwin, who was Labour ex-leader Ed Miliband’s spin doctor and now works for People’s Vote, and James McGrory, the former communications director at Stronger In, the official Remain campaign, who now works for Open Britain.
Mr Grieve left just before midday. Most of the other participants left around 1pm, including Baroness Altmann, the anti-Brexit Tory peer, Patience Wheatcroft, the
‘Completely improper’
Tory peer and former newspaper editor who has backed a second referendum and has argued ‘we have to stop Brexit’, and the Lib Dem Brexit spokesman in the Lords, Sarah Ludford.
They were joined by AC Grayling, the philosopher who has said it was wrong to ‘normalise acceptance of leaving the EU’.
The meeting reveals that separate Remain groups are coordinating to try to stop Britain’s departure from the EU.
On Tuesday night Mr Grieve told the Commons he was not trying to prevent Brexit but ‘legitimately looking at the detail of one of the most complex legal and political exercises in which we have ever engaged in peacetime’.
In an interview with The Guardian last month, he backed another national poll to ask the public ‘is this what you really want?’ but also claimed he was ‘not working to precipitate it’.
Last night he rebelled against the Government to vote in favour of Britain joining the European Economic Area, which would mean staying in the single market.
A Commission spokesman said it did not organise the Smith Square meeting and suggested it may have been booked by an MEP who can use rooms in the building for free.
The spokesman confirmed that no Commission officials attended the meeting.
A spokesman for Where Next for Brexit said: ‘Pro-Europeans meeting to discuss Europe and inviting pro-European guest speakers should not surprise anyone.’
He added: ‘It is extraordinary that this should be regarded as a news story.’