Rees-mogg accuses PM of ‘abject weakness’ over Brexit

JACOB REES-MOGG has admitted for the first time he has “doubts” about Theresa May as he accused her of “abject weakness” over Brexit.

The leading Brexiteer and chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPS attacked the Prime Minister’s negotiating strategy as he claimed the Government was “preparing for failure” rather than success.

He said Mrs May’s preferred postbrexit customs partnership with the EU would amount to the UK “effectively remaining” in the bloc.

He criticised the preparations, describing it as “a sign of abject weakness” to draw up a fallback position two-and-a-half years in advance of the end of the transition period in Decem- ber 2020. He also took aim at a commitment to pay a Brexit divorce bill – worth an estimated £39billion – as he said the money had been “given away with nothing in return”.

Asked if he had lost faith in the Prime Minister, he told the Conservative Home website: “That would be a harsh way of putting it. No, I am not going that far. But I have doubts. I have doubts that what she says is still fine and what she does is not delivering on what she says and that inevitably raises concerns.”

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson urged Mrs May to “get on with” Brexit. “The Prime Minister is the custodian of the plan, which is to come out of the customs union, out of the single market and to get on with it, to get on with that project with all convenient speed,” he said last night.