Grassroots in open revolt over May’s Brexit
THE scale of the grassroots backlash against Theresa May and her Cabinet over her Brexit plans is revealed today, as the Prime Minister is warned by her own constituency chairman that she must not concede any further ground to the EU.
Cabinet ministers faced an angry response from their Conservative associations when they returned to their constituencies last week.
Seven chairmen of Cabinet ministers’ Conservative associations told The Sunday Telegraph that they either opposed the plans in their current form or would withdraw their support if Mrs May offered any further concessions to Brussels. Richard Kellaway, the chairman of Mrs May’s Maidenhead Conservative association, said: “If it were to be diluted it would ultimately not be acceptable.”
In a sign of a growing open revolt among grassroots figures, the chairman in Andrea Leadsom’s South Northamptonshire seat said the Government had “lost the sense of leaving”, and called for Mrs May to be replaced by a “statesman”.
The warnings come after Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, dismissed key elements of the plan signed off by the Cabinet at Chequers this month. Yesterday, Mrs May’s aides insisted that Mr Barnier had been “a good deal more positive” than reports suggested, with one stating: “The idea that he’s killed it stone-dead is for the birds.”
Separately, this newspaper has learnt that David Davis, who resigned as Brexit secretary, warned the Prime Minister not to deceive the public over her blueprint. “On customs and on goods the paper was not in line with the Government’s core promises to take back control of its laws and have an independent trade policy,” Mr Davis is said to have told the Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s country retreat.
“The Government should be up front that this meant the harmonisation of legislation with the EU and being a rule taker for swathes of the economy.”
Despite the warning, Mrs May went on to insist the plan would “end the jurisdiction of the [European Court of Justice] in the UK” and “take control of … our laws” – which No 10 maintains is the case.
Today, in a new analysis, Martin Howe, a prominent Tory QC who campaigned for Brexit, describes the claim as “sophistry at best”, adding: “It is quite clear that the interpretation of the laws applying within the UK will continue to be carried out by judges in Luxembourg, with judges in the UK having only a subservient role.
“What is even more alarming than the PM’s wholesale abandonment of her promises … is her repeated insistence in the face of reality that she has not abandoned them,” Mr Howe states.
The level of concern among Tory grassroots – partly prompted by the resignations of Mr Davis and Boris Johnson – is likely to alarm No10, which will fear a face-off when MPs return in September.
Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, who campaigned for a Leave vote but supports Mrs May’s plan as a “pragmatic” solution, was accused of “betrayal” in a dramatic confrontation with an activist in his Surrey constituency on July 20. “This is not a
betrayal,” Mr Gove insisted. Mr Kellaway said he supported the Prime Minister and had been “cheered up” by a briefing at Downing Street earlier this month, which “went down very well” among those present.
“At some stage we’ve got to do a deal, and a deal by definition is a compromise,” he said.
But he added: “I think we have reached the stage that if we don’t get a deal around these terms, then we’ll have to break away.”
In another case, an association chairman told this newspaper that scores of local members had written to the Re- main-supporting cabinet minister who is MP for their constituency, having become “absolutely fed up” with Mrs May’s handling of the Brexit negotiations. “The letters I’ve seen have been very strongly worded about the loss of sovereignty about the common rule book [for goods and agricultural products] and a failure to press ahead with leaving,” the chairman said.
Patricia Soby, the Tory chairman in the Devon constituency of Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney General, said: “This constituency conducted our own survey and practically everybody was against the Chequers deal.”
Don Hammond, the chairman of Tat- ton Conservative association, the local party of Esther McVey, the Leave-supporting Work and Pensions Secretary who has refused to publicly support the plan, said: “This is right at the limit of what I would consider to be a Brexit and I am distinctly unenthusiastic.”
Another chairman in the seat of a Remainer cabinet minister, said: “My fear is that if there isn’t a good deal, we’re going to get decimated at the next general election.”
A Downing Street source said Mrs May “has been clear about the areas that are non-negotiable”, adding in reference to ECJ involvement: “This is how trading relationships work.”