Mogg warns May: Give us a real Brexit or face revolt

Leader of Eurosceptics issues ultimatum to Prime Minister ahead of crucial summit

THERESA MAY will face an open Tory rebellion that risks the collapse of her Government unless she delivers the Brexit “she herself has promised”, Jacob Rees-mogg warns today before a critical summit at Chequers.

In a significant hardening of the position of Tory Eurosceptics, Mr Reesmogg makes clear that he and his colleagues will vote against Mrs May’s deal if she fails to “deliver what she has said she would”.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Rees-mogg compares her position to that of Sir Robert Peel, the former Conservative prime minister forced to quit in 1846 after his party revolted over the repeal of the Corn Laws.

It comes amid reports that the Prime Minister has told aides that she is prepared to stand and fight if Tory MPS force a vote to oust her.

At least four Cabinet ministers – Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Gavin Williamson – are said to be “on manoeuvres” and laying the ground for future leadership bids in the event that Mrs May should be forced to quit over Brexit.

On Friday the Prime Minister will host a meeting of her full Cabinet at Chequers, her rural retreat, in an attempt to thrash out differences over post-brexit trade and customs arrangements, in the run-up to the expected publication of a White Paper next week.

Mr Rees-mogg, who leads a 60-strong group of Tory Eurosceptic MPS, says that it is time for Mrs May and her Cabinet to decide whether to stand by her pledges on Brexit or reduce “a once-proud country” to a “tremulous state that sees Brexit as mere damage limitation”. He says: “Theresa May must stand firm for what she herself has promised. One former Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, decided to break his manifesto pledge and passed legislation with the majority of his party voting the other way. This left the Conservatives out of office for 28 years.

“At least he did so for a policy that works. At Chequers [Mrs May] must stick to her righteous cause and deliver what she has said she would, she must use her undoubted grace to persevere.”

The comparison to Sir Robert is particularly pointed. He was forced to rely on the Whigs and Radicals to repeal the laws, and resigned on the same day. He never held office again.

Mr Rees-mogg warns that he and other Tory Eurosceptics will vote against the final Brexit deal if it crosses a series of red lines. They include enabling Brussels to impose laws “either directly or indirectly” on the UK after Brexit and inhibiting Britain’s ability to strike trade deals and control migration. He also says that Theresa May’s “idiotic” customs partnership plan, which Eurosceptic MPS fear could lead to a major climbdown over Brexit, must be ripped up.

Mr Rees-mogg says the Prime Minister made a “personal contract” with the British people when she declared that Britain would leave the single market and customs union.

He singles out Greg Clark, the Business Secretary who has suggested that the UK should join a single market for goods and financial services, for criticism. “At Chequers this week the nation will see if her promises are kept or

if the policy advocated by a former member of the SDP [Greg Clark] wins favour,” says Mr Rees-mogg.

The Cabinet must agree to withhold the £39billion Brexit divorce bill unless there is a firm guarantee of a trade deal before Britain leaves the EU. Mr Rees-mogg says that the failure to secure such a guarantee is “something I would strongly oppose in any vote in the House of Commons”.

He says that leaving the EU “into the purgatory of a perpetual transition” would be foolish. It comes after Mr Clark, a pro-european, and Andrea Leadsom, the Eurosceptic Leader of the Commons, both suggested yesterday that the post-brexit transition period could be extended beyond December 2020.

He adds that “above all” the Cabinet must be clear that it is prepared to accept no-deal, adding: “No deal is better than a bad deal and plenty of bad deals are on offer.” He argues that it is also time to “call Ireland’s bluff” over the border issue, saying that “any solution which would split the UK in two is outrageous”.

♦ The EU has been accused of using the world’s poorest as a “bargaining chip” after threatening to pull funding from British aid organisations in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Senior European Commission officials have been inserting disclaimers in aid contracts warning UK charities that they could be dropped should Britain crash out of the EU next year.

One senior Tory MP told The Daily Telegraph: “It is absolutely appalling. As long as we are still paying in to the EU, it is not for the EU to determine how that money is spent.”

A Government spokesman said: “We are clear that this disclaimer must be removed... As it stands, they are hindering British aid organisations’ ability to deliver the common goal of alleviating poverty, which would hit the world’s poorest people hardest.”