BRING DOWN BORIS? YOU WON’T DARE

Rees-Mogg goads Remainers trying to block No Deal: You’re too scared to risk an Election

THE Minister at the centre of Boris Johnson’s shock move to suspend Parliament today dares his opponents to bring down the Government – then watch the Prime Minister sweep to a thumping Election victory.

Jacob Rees-Mogg accuses ‘deceitful’ and ‘underhand’ MPs planning a last-ditch Commons move to block No Deal Brexit of being too frightened to call a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson because it would lead to

a crushing defeat of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in a snap poll.

Mr Rees-Mogg, who went to Balmoral to gain the Queen’s approval for the dramatic suspension last week, lays down the gauntlet as an exclusive Mail on Sunday poll predicts Mr Johnson would win a majority of 28 seats in an Election – rising to 84 if Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party stands aside.

Plotters including former Chancellor Philip Hammond hope to seize control of the Commons agenda from the Government this week, allowing them to pass laws that would thwart No Deal.

But writing in this newspaper, Mr Rees-Mogg, the Commons Leader describes such ‘politicking’ as ‘unconstitutional’ – and says opponents are ‘too frightened’ to use the other route open to them. ‘They dare not use the confidence procedures because they know that Jeremy Corbyn is too unpopular,’ he writes.

His provocative comments come at the start of what is sure to be a tumultuous week at Westminster. In the latest developments:

Mr Hammond waded in to the growing row over No10’s sacking of one of Chancellor Sajid Javid’s top advisers by describing as ‘totally implausible’ the idea that she had been scheming with his supporters to thwart No Deal;

Senior Tories have wargamed how to react if Remain MPs pass laws forcing Mr Johnson to demand a Brexit extension. Under one scenario, he would duly ask for a delay beyond October 31 – but then use the UK’s veto in the EU to kill his own request;

Downing Street has drawn up plans to bar Tory MPs who vote to block No Deal from standing at the next Election;

Mr Johnson’s allies have vowed to punish Speaker John Bercow for siding with proRemain rebel MPs by putting up a Tory candidate against him in his Buckingham constituency – breaking established protocol;

Former Deputy Speaker Natascha Engel warned that her former boss’s partisan stance would backfire and bring about a hard Brexit;

Demonstrations took place across the UK yesterday against Mr Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament;

The Prime Minister has introduced a cross-Governmental dashboard modelled on the Apollo space project to ramp up preparations for No Deal;

Leaked EU minutes revealed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been impressed by Boris Johnson‘s ‘professional’ approach as Prime Minister, but has made clear to him that he needs to ‘move rapidly’ to secure a new Brexit deal.

Mr Johnson’s plan to prorogue Parliament prompted an angry backlash from opponents of a No Deal Brexit. They said it was an attempt to stop MPs from passing laws to thwart the Prime Minister’s plans.

The MPs, led on the Tory side by Mr Hammond and fellow former Cabinet Minister David Gauke, plan to seize control of the Commons when MPs return to Parliament on Tuesday.

They hope to delay Brexit if Brussels refuses to strike a compromise deal removing elements such as the Northern Ireland backstop, which are hated by the Tory hard Brexiteers known as the ‘Spartans’.

In his Mail on Sunday article, Mr Rees-Mogg says Remainers risk sabotaging plans to plough millions into public services by wiping out the time set aside for the Chancellor’s Spending Review on Wednesday. He writes: ‘The Chancellor has made clear it will focus on voters’ priorities – schools, education, health and the police and it may be unwise for the Commons to stand in the way of the recruitment of 20,000 more police officers, or to prevent more than £14 billion being committed to our schools.’

He also urges Mr Bercow not to interfere in the process, saying the Speaker ‘is bound by a requirement to represent the whole House of Commons, and by implication the whole of the UK, not a single view of their choosing’.

‘It is now time to end this paralysis in the two chambers and allow the new Prime Minister, with all his natural vim and vigour, to bring this chapter in our island story to a conclusion,’ he writes.

The Deltapoll survey for The Mail on Sunday shows that the ‘Boris bounce’ first recorded when he entered No10 in July has continued in the wake of last week’s move.

It puts the Conservatives on 35 per cent, up 5 per cent and 11 points clear of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour on 24 per cent. That means a projected Commons majority of 28.

If Mr Farage could be persuaded not to run candidates, the Tories would be on 41 per cent, with a 15 point lead over Labour – enough for a projected majority of 84. The survey shows that half of all Brexit supporters support an electoral pact between the Conservatives and the Brexit Party, rising to nearly eight out of ten Brexit Party supporters.

The poll shows that only a third of respondents believed Mr Johnson when he said that he was proroguing Parliament to allow the time for the Queen’s Speech. When asked whether they agreed with the move, voters were split down the middle – 34 per cent in favour, with 36 per cent against.

The volatility of the political situation leads half of the respondents to think that Mr Johnson will only be Prime Minister for a year or less, while only one in ten predicts he will be in No 10 for five years or longer.

Joe Twyman, co-founder of Deltapoll, said: ‘Despite all the controversy in Westminster, support for the Conservatives under Boris Johnson remains strong and increasingly points to a majority being on the cards were a General Election to be held today.

‘Among Conservative voters there is support for the new Prime Minister’s approach to both the suspension of Parliament and Brexit. What continues to be clear from these results, however, is that the country is still deeply divided: divided over Brexit, divided over the suspension of Parliament and divided over the future. And all these divisions show no sign of disappearing any time soon.’

Deltapoll interviewed 2,028 British adults online between August 29 and 31. The data has been weighted to be representative of the British adult population as a whole.

‘Don’t sabotage plans for spending boost’ ‘Boris bounce’ shows no sign of abating