Number 10’s frantic last appeal to Mogg
JACOB REES-MOGG was last night billed as Theresa May’s ‘last chance’ of salvaging her Brexit deal.
A senior Government source confessed that Downing Street was pinning all its hopes on the arch Brexiteer to persuade Tory rebels to back the Prime Minister’s deal in a third Commons vote this week.
The source said: ‘Number 10 are now banking it all on Jacob. If he can persuade colleagues to back the deal, we may still – just – get over the line. ‘It’s the last throw of the dice.’ Mr Rees-Mogg, the powerful chairman of the Tories’ pro-Brexit European Research Group and an open supporter of Boris Johnson as a future leader, is seen as crucial to any hopes of getting the ex-Foreign Secretary to back the deal.
He is also seen by Number 10 as ‘more reasonable’ than former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab.
Mr Rees-Mogg declined to comment last night, but the Somerset MP has emerged in recent weeks as a potential peace-maker between Downing Street and Tory Brexiteers who are refusing to back her deal.
This has led to reports of splits between Mr Rees-Mogg and more ‘die-hard’ members of the ERG such as Mark Francois and Steve Baker.
Mr Rees-Mogg has warned that despite his deep misgivings over Mrs May’s flawed accord, even that would be better than no Brexit at all.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If I had to choose between No Deal and Mrs May’s original accord, I would have no hesitation of opting for No Deal Brexit – but even Mrs May’s deal would be better than not leaving at all.’
However, he has also said privately that if the Democratic Unionist Party’s ten MPs held out against the deal, he would not desert them. The Northern Irish party’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson last week warned that his colleagues will not be ‘threatened’ into voting for the Government’s plan.