MADNESS OF THE HARD BREXITEERS
...that’s what Business Minister calls ‘horrible’ slide towards Mogg-style cliff edge deal – as Tory infighting intensifies ahead of crucial EU summit
BITTER Tory infighting over Theresa May’s negotiations to leave the EU dramatically deepened last night as one of her Mini s t ers openly condemned t he ‘madness’ of a hard Brexit.
Ahead of a crucial Brussels summit on the shape of the Brexit deal, Business Minister Richard Harrington dismissed calls for Mrs May to pursue a cliff- edge break from the EU.
This was echoed by Damian Green, Mrs May’s former deputy, who condemned arch- Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg for his ‘obviously misleading arguments’ and spouting ‘Churchillian-sounding phrases about becoming a “vassal state” ’.
Last night, Mr Rees-Mogg, leader of the pro-Brexit Tory European Research Group (ERG), hit back by accusing Remain- supporting
‘The quiet, solid centre of the party backs May’
Tories of seeking to thwart an ‘orderly Brexit’.
The fierce exchanges erupted as Mrs May faces the most pivotal month of the entire Brexit process with her Cabinet deadlocked on the shape of the deal.
In just under a fortnight’s time, the Commons is scheduled to vote on a series of amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill designed to soften the impact of Brexit and give MPs more influence over the final agreement.
Remain MPs believe that at least 15 Tories are prepared to join with Labour and vote against the Government and defeat Mrs May.
The EU has given the UK until the summit at the end of the month to set out its preferred post-Brexit customs arrangement.
But Mrs May is struggling to devise a plan to honour her pledge to quit the customs union and still avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after her ‘ customs partnership’ was blocked by Cabinet Brexiteers i ncl uding Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. The deadlock has led some Tory MPs to dub No 10 the ‘May Celeste’ because it appears becalmed in the face of the crisis.
Remainer Mr Harrington said his ministerial portfolio, which includes the auto and aerospace industries, had convinced him of the need for the UK to secure a ‘very sensible Brexit’.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I am against a real horrible hard Brexit. My portfolio… shows it would be madness to have a hard Brexit and that’s my view.’
Former First Secretary of State Mr Green joined ex-Home Secre- tary Amber Rudd and former Education Secretary Justine Greening to visit Mrs May in Downing Street last week to reassure the Prime Minister that the ‘quiet, solid centre’ of the party supported her attempts to broker a solution.
Writing in this newspaper (see opposite) Mr Green said the troika had assured the Prime Minister that ‘far from being isolated in her search for a pragmatic, workable solution, she does in fact have widespread support’.
Taking aim at Mr Rees-Mogg, he writes: ‘One very damaging and misguided line of argument is that Britain is all- powerful in these negotiations, so the mere threat of our walking away will bring the Europeans promptly to heel... I am afraid that even my friend, the
intelligent and energetic Jacob Rees-Mogg… occasionally lapses in this way. Last week he overstated our negotiating strength in an obviously misleading way by claiming that the EU was under pressure to strike a deal “because we buy more from them than they do from us by £100 billion a year”.
‘All that tells us is that there are 450 million Europeans wanting to sell to us and only 65 million Brits selling to them.’
Former Cabinet Minister Nicky Morgan added her voice to the criticisms of the hardliners, using a speech in Dublin to argue: ‘There is no majority in the UK Parliament for a hard Brexit but there is also no desire in the Conservative Party except for a few hardened members of something called t he European Research Group for a change of leadership.
‘Theresa May would win a vote of confidence among Conservative MPs. So all this sabre-rattling about early Elections and leadership challengers is exactly that, designed to put the pressure on to No 10 to come up with a hard or even potentially no- deal Brexit which would do enormous damage’.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: ‘The ERG is supporting the Prime Minister and manifesto commitments to leave the single market and customs union. It is the Remainers who are trying to obstruct the Government’s legislative agenda and an orderly Brexit.’