Brexit pollsters target Tory MPS with deselection threat

CONSERVATIVE MPS have complained that Leave campaigners are using polls to increase their chances of deselection.

Nicky Morgan, the former education minister, said voters contacted recently by Comres had been asked “very leading questions about whether Conservative MPS who don’t follow ‘the will of the people’ will be deselected.”

Stephen Hammond, MP for Wimbledon, told the Evening Standard that his seat had also been targeted by pollsters asking “Would a united Conservative Party deliver a hard Brexit? Do you realise that your MP is opposed to hard Brexit?”

Several other MPS are also thought to have been singled out amid a heightened threat of deselection. The private client who commissioned the Comres poll, which has not yet been published, is believed to have links with the Leave movement.

Mr Hammond said he did not believe they “had a right to deliberately undermine democracy” while Ms Morgan said she assumed the poll was designed to heap pressure on those who had spoken out against a hard Brexit or nodeal Brexit.

The deselection fears echo those engulfing parts of the Labour Party after a number of moderate MPS recently lost votes of no confidence in their constituencies, sparking fears of a purge.

Police were forced to intervene after two MPS had “sinister” cards delivered to their parliamentary offices wishing them “good luck with the new career”. Officers are examining how an intruder was able to enter the office of Joan Ryan, chairman of the Labour Friends of Israel, and place the card on her desk.