Tories cosying up to Corbyn told: You won’t be forgiven
REBEL Tories were last night warned they would never be forgiven after they threatened to help Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street to block a No Deal Brexit.
In an extraordinary move, backbencher Guto Bebb yesterday declared he would rather install the Labour leader as a caretaker prime minister than allow Boris Johnson to take the country out of the EU without an agreement.
‘A short-term Jeremy Corbyn government is less damaging than the generational damage that would be caused by a No Deal Brexit,’ the Tory MP told the BBC. Meanwhile, three Tory former ministers yesterday agreed to meet the Labour leader to plot how they could work together to stop No Deal.
They responded positively to Mr Corbyn’s plan to stop No Deal, even though Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson rejected the idea, saying Mr Corbyn could not command the confidence of the Commons.
Cabinet minister Grant Shapps last night urged his Tory colleagues to ‘think very, very carefully’ about the dangers of helping Mr Corbyn into power.
The Transport Secretary said: ‘It’s absolutely extraordinary that any Conservative MP considered even for one minute installing Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
‘Jeremy Corbyn would wreck our economy, he would destroy jobs and the livelihoods, savings, I think he also can’t be trusted with security or crime.’
In an appeal to Tory MPs thinking about working with Mr Corbyn, Mr Shapps added: ‘I just say to them you know you really need to think very very carefully about installing Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street. It absolutely cannot happen for the sake of this country.’
Tory ex-ministers Dominic Grieve, Sir Oliver Letwin and Dame Caroline Spelman yesterday accepted an invitation from Mr Corbyn to work together to prevent No Deal. In a letter of reply to the Labour leader, the trio and ex-Tory MP Nick Boles, who now sits as an independent, wrote that they believed stopping the country leaving the EU without an agreement should be their ‘common priority’ as they agreed to meet in the coming weeks ‘to discuss the different ways that this might be achieved’.
It followed Mr Corbyn’s extraordinary written plea on Wednesday night, to rebel Tories and opposition leaders, for support to help him into Downing Street to stop a No Deal Brexit.
He declared he was ready to collapse Boris Johnson’s government in a confidence vote and then lead a ‘strictly time limited’ government to extend Article 50.
He said he would then call a general election – at which Labour would campaign for a second referendum. But there were no guarantees about how ‘time limited’ such a government might be, with Tories fearing that he would cling to No 10 indefinitely.
The situation is likely to come to a head next month as MPs opposed to No Deal try to stop Mr Johnson from taking Britain out of the EU on October 31 without an agreement. Dame Caroline last night said that while she was happy to work with Mr Corbyn on options such as changing the law to block No Deal she would not vote to bring down the Government in a confidence vote.
Mr Grieve said he believed it was ‘unlikely’ Mr Corbyn would succeed in becoming a caretaker prime minister.
He added: ‘But he has written a letter in which he sets out his desire to prevent a No Deal Brexit
‘Would destroy jobs and livelihoods’
and on that I am in agreement with him because it is something that is going to have such a catastrophic impact.’
Tory figures last night urged caution about working with Mr Corbyn. Backbencher Michael Fabricant said: ‘It is remarkable that given that the Lib Dems think this offer from Jeremy Corbyn is a big joke, some of my colleagues are taking it seriously. As a former government whip, I hope that their action will not be forgotten.’
Former minister Greg Hands added: ‘Corbyn only became Labour leader because his MPs didn’t think it could actually happen. Now he could become Prime Minister because a Conservative MP makes the same mistake.’ Jon Conway, a member of Mr Grieve’s local Tory association in Beaconsfield who has been leading efforts to remove him, said that it was wrong for him to be fighting Mr Johnson’s Brexit pledge just weeks after the Prime Minister won the overwhelming support of the party membership.
He said: ‘People in the constituency are appalled that he still claims to represent us.’