Beware siege mentality of leading Brexiteers
Just because someone voted Remain in 2016 doesn’t mean they can’t be a Releaver now
Alittle spat took place at the Tory Party Conference on Sunday that many would be forgiven for not noticing. While Boris and the Prime Minister slugged it out in the media, Conor Burns took on the Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston in a middleweight Brexit contest. Burns, a friend and confidante of Margaret Thatcher and more recently Boris Johnson’s Parliamentary aide, called for Wollaston to be ousted as the Tory MP for Totnes.
Many in the party openly dislike Wollaston, regarding her as slippery and two-faced, having backed Brexit only to change to Remain midreferendum campaign and now backing a second referendum. She is identified as an “arch-remoaner”, a regular at both chiding her Brexiteer colleagues and criticising the Government and the manifestos she stood for election on. But, while there is plenty to dislike about Wollaston’s behaviour, an arch Brexiteer calling openly for a fellow Conservative to be ousted is something new.
Something else happened on Sunday that was even more worrying. In his speech, the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, warned the EU not to turn itself into a prison where countries could not leave. It was a rather stark message to Brussels reflecting the reality of the current impasse, and an attempt to jolt negotiations that are going badly. It went down well in the conference hall with a strongly Brexiteer audience.
Yet the reaction from the priests at the Brexit High Altar was of great displeasure. To the Brexiteer hardcore, Hunt’s message was inappropriate – he was previously a Remainer and was now trying too hard to appeal to Eurosceptics. The message from people such as Steve Baker, the former chairman of the European Reform Group (ERG), was not welcoming or generous. “People who were for Remain trying to appeal to Brexiteers time and again go too far,” he said.
Why did it matter that Hunt was for Remain in 2016 if he has changed his mind since? He is, after all, in a position to influence both the Cabinet and EU negotiations. He was also stating something that many Eurosceptics had noted before – that is, the EU’S objectionable attitude to those who wished to leave it.
Of course it could be that Brexiteers felt this was the opening of a leadership bid by Hunt, trying to build a bridge to them and their supporters. Slapping him down early on is certainly a clear warning that they don’t want another Remainer leading the Party. But there is a worry that leading Brexiteers have developed a siege mentality – in which they feel they can only trust those who have always adhered to their religion.
There’s no doubt that, for a certain cabal of Conservatives, having been pro-brexit in 2016 is now the only valid stamp of approval – approval that cannot be gained subsequently. Even worse, that intellectual purity on Brexit becomes, for such believers, crucial to one’s standing within the Parliamentary and wider Conservative Party. It’s a trend that is every bit as worrying a concept as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party deselecting moderate MPS who don’t agree with his extreme Left wing tactics or bully-boy henchmen.
There was a saying in the party directly after the referendum that “we’re all Brexiteers now”. But is it true? Certainly there are a smattering of Remainers digging their heels in and frustrating the Brexiteers. These are the ones like Wollaston who want a second referendum and ultimately no Brexit. The difficulties between these two entrenched groups is unedifying but at least understandable.
But there is a much wider group of “Releavers” – such as Hunt – who accepted the referendum result and simply want to get the best deal and get on with leaving the EU. If the ERG purists have become so intolerant that they won’t accept the integrity of even these MPS and party members, where does this leave the Conservative Party?
If the true believers are the only ones who can interpret the God of Brexit’s words, then the divisions in the Party will never be healed. So before this goes too far, here’s a warning. Brexiteers you won. Now be confident about the future – and tolerant and magnanimous towards those who lost.