Three ministers ‘meet anti-brexit group over second referendum’
THREE ministers have held talks with an anti-brexit campaign group that wants them to back a second EU referendum in defiance of the Government, it was claimed last night.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the Best For Britain group has held a series of talks with Remain-supporting ministers and MPS to encourage them to oppose Theresa May.
Best For Britain, which is funded by the billionaire financier George Soros, said it was “working tirelessly” to secure a second referendum, targeting ministers and Opposition MPS it believed were sympathetic to its cause.
Yesterday Phillip Lee, a justice minister who reportedly held talks with the group, became the first member of the Government to resign over the Prime Minister’s Brexit policy.
Conservative sources said that four more junior ministers were considering following in Dr Lee’s wake as part of a co-ordinated plot to scupper Mrs May’s Brexit plans.
Sources close to Dr Lee said his resignation had been a “warning shot” to the Government and that more departures would come if Mrs May had not made further concessions on her plans for a so-called “meaningful vote” and customs arrangements by the time two more Brexit Bills are debated next month.
Yesterday, on a day of drama and brinkmanship in Parliament, Mrs May avoided defeat after a concession to Tory rebels over the meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal. Whips and ministers shuttled back and forth for hours during a debate over the EU Withdrawal Bill in a frantic attempt to reach a compromise with Remainers.
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general who led the rebellion, claimed he had killed off the prospect of a “no deal” Brexit and suggested it was Dr Lee’s resignation that had triggered the climbdown, but the Government insisted no such concession had been or would be made.
Details of Best For Britain’s attempts to thwart Brexit were disclosed by The
Telegraph in February, when it emerged that the group had plans to “pressure” MPS in 100 Leave-supporting constituencies. The group claimed it had been in contact with Dr Lee before his resignation. Dr Lee called for a second referendum in his resignation statement, and Best For Britain claimed it had been in contact with other ministers it believed to be sympathetic to a second vote, including Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister, Richard Harrington, the business minister, Shailesh Vara, the Northern Ireland minister and Rachel Maclean, a parliamentary private secretary to the Home Secretary.
Mr Harrington and Ms Maclean denied having meetings or contact with Best For Britain.
Eloise Todd, the chief executive of Best For Britain, said: “We have been speaking both to Government ministers and opposition MPS to make our case and lobby them on Brexit.” Mr Vara said: “I’m not thinking of resigning. I’m absolutely a solid Brexiteer and if there was a referendum now I would campaign to leave. I don’t agree with their campaign, the people of Britain made their voice absolutely clear.”
Mr Burt said that he had “absolutely no intention” of resigning over Brexit.
A spokesman for Ms Maclean said she had never spoken to Best For Britain or attended an event held by them, describing suggestions she could resign over Brexit as “utter rubbish”. Mr Harrington issued a “categoric” denial that he had ever met anyone from Best For Britain and said he would not resign. Dr Lee was unavailable for comment.
ANNA SOUBRY ‘At least one [MP] will not vote in accordance with their conscience because of threats’
‘Phillip Lee is obsessed with the idea that he is undervalued but he has no grasp of how difficult politics is at the highest level’ FRANK FIELD ‘Some people have been quite clear they want to prevent Brexit, others disguise that fact’ SIR BILL CASH ‘This is what people fought and died for – who governs this country’ KENNETH CLARKE ‘I hope I never live to see another referendum in my life’
UNTIL yesterday, Theresa May regarded Phillip Lee as one of her few personal friends in politics.
But a matter of minutes before the Prime Minister chaired her weekly Cabinet meeting at 9.30am, she received word from the justice minister that he was quitting in order to fight her Brexit policy, which he described as “detrimental” to the country.
Having spent almost all of the previous day negotiating a deal with backbench Tory rebels to avoid defeat during yesterday’s Brexit votes in Parliament, Mrs May now found herself facing a potential plot from her own ministers to scupper her Brexit plans.
Intriguingly, the anti-brexit campaign group Best For Britain, funded by George Soros, the billionaire financier, claimed yesterday that it had held meetings with Dr Lee before his resignation, and that it had spoken to three other ministers and another member of the Government about backing a vote for a second referendum.
The question for Mrs May is whether Dr Lee is the spearhead of a long-term conspiracy to thwart Brexit, or, as one former colleague put it, “a lone wolf who has shot his bolt”. Conservative sources have told The
Daily Telegraph that four other Europhile junior ministers are considering quitting their jobs if the Government does not make major concessions on Brexit in the coming weeks.
They described Dr Lee’s resignation as a “warning shot” of what is to come when two more pieces of Brexit legislation – the customs and trade bills – are put to the vote next month. By last night, no other ministers had resigned, prompting cynics to compare Dr Lee’s threats to the failed coup against Gordon Brown in 2009, when the resignations of Hazel Blears, Caroline Flint and James Purnell failed to unseat the Labour prime minister.
One Government source mocked Dr Lee as “just a s--- James Purnell”, while a Cabinet minister said it was nothing more than a “look at me” moment.
The alleged involvement of Best For Britain, however, has provided a glimpse into the activities of the wellfunded campaign to stop Brexit that was first thrown into the spotlight by
The Telegraph in February. Sources within Best For Britain said yesterday that the group had contact with Dr Lee in recent weeks, and that four other Government members, including three ministers, had been contacted to sound them out about supporting a second EU referendum.
The ministers were named as Shailesh Vara, a Northern Ireland minister, Alistair Burt, a Foreign Office minister, and Richard Harrington, a business minister. Rachel Maclean, a parliamentary private secretary to Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, was also said to have been contacted, though all four last night denied having any contact with the group. They said they had no intention of resigning.
Sources within Best for Britain said it had been approaching Tory MPS and ministers and urging them to “vote with their consciences”.
The group claimed one of its members met Mr Harrington in a Westminster pub shortly before he wrote an article for a Sunday newspaper in which he condemned hard Brexiteers as “mad”. Mr Harrington denied this.
However, Dr Lee had not told Best For Britain, his constituency chairman, or even, reportedly, his wife Catherine of his intention to resign.
One person who did have prior knowledge of his resignation, however, was Dominic Grieve, the leader of yesterday’s Tory rebellion against parts of the EU Withdrawal Bill.
The two men were seen having dinner together on Monday night, just 12 hours before Dr Lee went public.
Yesterday morning, with a theatrical flourish, he told delegates at a conference on Brexit organised by the Tory think-tank Bright Blue that he had decided to resign because: “If, in the future, I am to look my children in the eye and honestly say that I did my best for them I cannot, in all good conscience, support how our country’s current exit from the EU looks set to be delivered.” He was later overheard on the phone suggesting other ministers were preparing to follow him out.
Swallowing her fury after being given just a few minutes’ warning of what was coming, Mrs May ploughed on with yesterday’s 90-minute Cabinet meeting without telling her colleagues of the betrayal.
Dr Lee, 47, represents Bracknell, which neighbours with Mrs May’s Maidenhead constituency, and Mrs May attended his wedding, as well as hosting him for tea in Downing Street.
One Government source described Dr Lee as an “attention-seeker” while a former colleague said: “Phillip Lee was sounding out colleagues about running for party leader even when David Cameron was prime minister. He is obsessed with the idea that he is undervalued but he has no grasp of how difficult politics is at the highest level.”
Dr Lee may not even be an MP after the next election, according to Chris Boutle, his constituency chairman.
Dr Lee has been summoned to explain himself to his local party a week on Monday after officials in Bracknell read about his resignation via Twitter.
Mr Boutle said: “The constituency voted for Leave and although there are a few very enthusiastic Remainers, the majority of his party certainly wants to leave.” He added that a call for a second EU referendum “is not supported by his constituency”.
Mr Boutle said Dr Lee’s actions would “count against him” if he wanted to stand again, and that “the executive council is not going to be very impressed by this”.
SIR EDWARD LEIGH ‘This [on the meaningful vote] really is the ultimate wrecking amendment’
DAVID DAVIS ‘We have listened whenever possible to sensible suggestions’
KATE HOEY ‘The reality is the European Commission do not want to give us a good deal’
PHILLIP LEE ‘I cannot support how our country’s current exit from the EU looks set to be delivered’